Shades of Home
by Yanagi-wa
Summary: Will Ranma find life in the shadows more welcoming than his life back in Nerima. Tune in and see. OC and OOC Alternate Universe! Complete.
1. chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma! Rumiko Takahashi owns Ranma   
  
If you like please review, even if you don't like please review. Sometimes bad reviews are more helpful then good. No flames please, I'm out of marshmallows.   
  
Gemna Goofs.  
  
Genma popped in to the livingroom, grinning and rubbing his hands.  
  
"Ah, Ranma! There you are! All ready? I'm taking you to a new school of Martial Arts. It's called Chain Masters. They're really good. They even pay me an earnest for if you get hurt!" Genma chuckled. " I think you'll really like this school. They offer the best conditioning. I over heard one of their directors talking while I was a panda. They take you to some kind of special camp. You'd like to go to a camp, kids your own age to train with and beds and everything."  
  
Genma couldn't believe his luck. These people would pay him to train his son. He was just not in the mood to train this spring break. He wanted to sit under a tree and sleep for once. Besides which Happosai was nagging him about how he was slowing down and Ranma was getting faster.   
  
"Uh, Pop I really wish you wouldn't do this. I've got a really bad feeling." Ranma rubbed the back of his head, his Pop wasn't the most reliable of people and had gotten him into more than one fix. Three or Four fiancees sprang to mind. He also knew that pop wasn't going to pay these people back and probably had some ridiculous scheme of get out of paying, one that relied on skipping out in the middle of the night.  
  
Ranma followed his pop out the door mumbling in disgust. Looking back over his shoulder he waved to Soun, Nabiki, Akane, and Ksumi. "Good-by! See you in a few days!" Little did Ranma know how wrong he was.  
  
Chain Child Agency  
  
The fat man sized Ranma up. "Well, he certainly looks healthy. Strong too. Good! Good! Just sign here. We'll process the paperwork and get it to you in two days. You can leave him here. We'll start training immediately!"  
  
"Pop! I don't like this! I don't wanna' stay!" Ranma felt panic for the first time in a long time. He was used to his fathers' wild training schemes, but this was a bit much. He didn't like the feel of the metal collar the man had slipped around his neck.  
  
"Now! Now! Ranma, that collar is just for identification. See, here is the number on the contract for your classes. I'll be back to see you in a few days" Genma could see all that lovely money slipping through his fingers. "Don't be unmanly!"  
  
Ranma gave up. When his Pop started talking that way he knew there was no hope of changing his mind. He watched his father hurry out the door, papers clutched in his hands.  
  
A heavy set, ugly man walked up to Ranma and took his arm none to gently and began to pull him towards a door.  
  
"Well, boy we don't get many humans of your quality. I really feel sorry for you. Your own father!"  
  
Ranma jerked his arm, guy had a grip. The back of his neck crawled. "Wha' My own father what?"  
  
Ugly smirked at him and jerked back hauling Ranma nearer the door. "Boy, he really put one over on you!! He just sold you into slavery in the Shadows. Kid like you. You might live two or even three years. If you're tough enough"  
  
Ranma grabbed the collar and pulled, hard. "Tough enough! I'll show you tough!" At first he thought he could endure the pain; after 10 minutes he fainted.  
  
*******************************************************  
  
Materia-Blade I hope this is better. I also think I may be headed in a different direction that you think. (At least I hope so.)  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Two days later  
  
The big man frowned at his companion and sighed. "I hate this. I just hate it. How many this time." His companion pressed his earpiece into his ear. "Only four. two girls, two boys. Girls are OK. They don't abuse the merchandise. One boy the same, just scared. The other boy is not in good shape. They really punished the hell out of him. Wait!! He's still fighting? You'll have to dart him."  
  
Danny reported to the unit head "Steven, I've never felt Chi power like that young man has. He nearly blew Doris's socks off. He could be a really good martial artist or a total wacko. But if he's a fighter, he doesn't have much control of his power. He could be really dangerous, he's not trained properly or he wouldn't have gotten into this mess. He would have sensed something wrong."  
  
Steven pulled at his lip. This was an unpleasant development. The control collars were easy to get off most of the rescues, but anyone with a lot of chi could be in real trouble. Sometimes the collar would bond to the chi and it took a heavy spell to get it off if it was possible at all. He just hoped they hadn't cursed the kid.  
  
"Well, we'll just have to keep him until we find out how powerful he is and if he has the kind of control he needs. I'm not letting him out of the Compound until I'm sure he isn't going to go off like a loose cannon. That's all we would need. Another incident of chi over load like the last one and the public will panic. We don't need a bunch of panicked politicians trying to legislate chi.. Heaven help us all then!"  
  
Late evening same day  
  
Ranma woke up with a groan. White ceiling, bed? Where was he. He cautiously opened his eyes. This was good. No one here. Maybe he could....clank. "Damn. I knew it was too good to be true. Were am I?"   
  
You're in the infirmary at home base, young man. I bet you really feel like crap. Quite the fighter. too bad you didn't realize that we were there to rescue you. If you hadn't put up such a fight we wouldn't have darted you. But we weren't about to let you hurt us or yourself. You'll feel better in a few minutes. "  
  
The big man smiled, his eyes narrowing into slits in the laugh lines around them. "I'm Steven, if you need anything or want anything, just ask. If it's possible we'll get it for you."  
  
Ranma raised up on one elbow, "How bout we start with these restraints. I'd like them off." Steven eyed him for a moment. "OK but you have to give me your word of honor that you won't start a fight. Some one else hits you first all bets ore off." Ranma nodded slightly. "No. Not a nod, you have to say it and mean it. I'll know if you're lying." Ranma thought for a minute" OK, word of honor. If no one starts anything I won't finish it."  
  
Steven unbuckled the restraints and tossed them on a chair. "You've got a big problem....." Ranma interrupted, About this collar, I'd like it off too" "That's the problem. We can't figure out how to get it off. That's why you'll have to stay here for a while. We can't let you wander around with that cursed thing around your neck. Any one with the right knowledge and power could use it against you."   
  
Ranma sighed, pop this is the absolute last mess you ever get me into. I mean it! "Well, now what. I guess I'll have to trust you. I'm a pretty good judge of character and you look OK. I'd really hate to be disappointed" Ranma gave Steven a sharp look. It would probably kill me and you if I can manage it." Steven smiled again. Kid wasn't fooling. he really would try to kill him if things went sour. "I don't have any intention of making that necessary. But I'll warn you. I'm not easy to kill. Better, meaner men than you have tried it and failed. But enough of this pissing contest. Go to sleep. You're safe here and we'll see what is what tomorrow. There will be some tests to see about getting that collar off and you'll have to go to school while you are here. So placement tests will also be necessary. " Ranma snored softly. "Poor kid. I wonder how much of that he heard."  
  
Ranma slept surprisingly well that night. In fact he woke up so late that the first meal he got was lunch. A nurse stuck her head in the door waking him with a cheerful, "Time for lunch sleepyhead. A growing boy like you needs food as well as sleep. Now I know you had a really hard couple of days but we really won't hurt you. So tell me what you'd like. You don't have any restrictions so you can have anything on the menu" Ranma looked over the menu and peeked at the smiling woman from under his bangs {How kawaii is he!!} " Can I have all of it? I mean one of everything here?" The nurse nodded, "Sure, if you think you can eat it all. Why don't I bring you the first complete meal on the menu. Then if you eat that we'll see." Ranma nodded, "Great, I'd like that, but I think you'll be serprized at how much I can eat. They didn't feed me at all. So I haven't eaten in like three days."  
  
After he had eaten,{every thing on the menu just like he had asked for} Ranma was taken to see the Headmaster. Steven looked at Ranma and scowled at the "Labcoat" who had guided him. "Wheelchair? He shouldn't be walking yet." The man blinked then shook his head. "Boss, you really want to start a fight over a chair. The only way we were gong to get him into a chair was with a wrestling match and we didn't think he would make it two feet so we let him try. His powers of recovery are incredible."  
  
Ranma snorted. "My pop works me over worse than that daily. The only reason I was so bad off was because they kept at me with out letup. I never hurt worse in my life, and for so long at a time. Even I need some time to recover. With no sleep and no food. I just wore out. I'm fine now. Really good nights sleep, good food, clean clothes. Did wonders for me." Ranma smiled, his natural good nature wouldn't let him be really angry for long. " I'm inclined to trust you. Please don't let me down." Ranma watched Steven as he talked and saw anger, then relief flit over his face. Maybe he really could trust these people.  
  
Steven motioned to a chair. After Ranma seated himself and finished squirming around to get comfortable he picked up a manila folder, opened it and read. "Asian male. age: 16 Hight 5"9" Weight 160lb seller Genma Saotome Contract; indefinite. We need more information than that. Can you tell me your name? Where you are originally form? Anything else you can think of? Are you trained in martial arts at all and what style you use? Any information will be helpful. We'd like to find your family and at least tell them where you are. I told you before that we can't let you leave just yet, but we'll get word to you folks for you."  
  
Ranma frowned. "What to do? What to do." Ranma muttered to himself for a few moments. " Well I guess the best to do is tell you my name. It's Ranma Saotome." Steven turned alarmingly red in the face, his eyes squinted up till they nearly disappeared, the look on his face made Ranma cringe slightly. {Deep, cleansing breath!} " I'm not trying to yell at you, but are you telling me that your own father sold you to a Chain Child Agency?! Let them put that filth around your neck and...." Ranma held up his hand, waggling it back and forth. "Easy1 Easy!. Don't have an aneurysm or something. Pop is an idiot, greedy for money and he doesn't listen very well. Especially if he's eavesdropping in his panda form. I really don't think he knew what he was doing. He really loves me in his own lazy way. He thought it was a martial arts school, ......I think . So let's get back to business. What...Oh yeah! I'm from Nerema, Japan. Capitol City of Weirdness. I practice Anything Goes Style. And I think that I don't want you to get in touch with Pop until we find out more about this collar and getting it off. If you don't mind, that is."  
  
Steven tapped the dossier on his hand, he had written every thing down as Ranma spoke. Now was the hard part.   
  
Well, young...er....Ranma. We need to have a ...Well that is I need to. Damn!! I really hate this part of my job. There is no easy way to say this. You can't go home. Not now. And maybe not ever. " Ranma clenched his fists, but stayed put. He'd given his word and as no one had hit him he wouldn't start anything. Clenching his teeth and forcing each word past them Ranma snarled. "What kind of shit is this. Why can't I go home when you get this collar off. You said I wasn't a slave anymore. At least that's what....."  
  
It was Steven's turn to make calming motions. "Sorry, Sorry. I know this is upsetting. Please get your chi under control. We don't need an explosion or spirit blast. Not in this small a room. Cool off or I'll have to cool you off.  
  
You have a very high chi. If you don't control it you can hurt innocent people very badly. And Anything Goes Style hasn't taught you any control at all. As far as I'm, concerned it's not a true style at all. Just a bunch of fancy moves borrowed from all over. All flash and no substance, fancy moves to amaze the girls and scare your opponent into making a mistake. And you can frown all you want, glare too. But you know I'm right. Probably the only reason you win at all is that you're strong as a horse and fast as lightning." Steven flickered, Ranma put his hand to his cheek. Steven had put a sticker on it. But I have control of my chi and I posses my power. It doesn't posses me.  
  
The offer is this. Stay, train, learn. We'll try to teach you to harness that powerful chi of yours. The collar we get off, somehow, maybe. If it has bonded to your chi it could be a problem, I wont lie about that. But you won't be mistreated here. We don't beat our students, nor do we make them fight. Training is hard, but the Sensai make sure that you don't hurt yourself.  
  
Son, Ranma Flinched {don't call him son} Ranma, what do you want to do with yourself in the future. You need to be thinking about what you want to be. I know it's early in life to be thinking of that, but you and other kids like you have to decide early. Training for one job and winding up not qualified is a bitch. You'll need to make some choices now. If you don't learn to control your powers you can't leave here. We could damp you but most subjects of that particular nastiness go through life half alive, crippled psychically. Not good. Learn control and there are lots of jobs you could do. Assassin, Body guard, Psychic detective a few others I don't feel you would like. I know this is a lot dumped on you all at once. No decision is truly binding until you have been tested. And you have to go to school so testing will include educational levels as well."  
  
Ranma felt as if he had been hit in the head, several times. Chi power was dangerous that he knew. but deadly. Ow! He wasn't very happy with the things Steven had said about Anything Goes Style, but he had a suspicion that he was right. The guy was old, at least 30 but he had just blinked out and there was that sticker. Ranma didn't want to hurt anyone. Especially through bad training or lack of skill. (Never turn down a challenge). " I need some time to think. When you are finished with your tests and we know more about what is going on can we talk more about things then?"  
  
Steven led Ranma to the door. " I know that you have some inportant decisions to make and at your age it isn't fair. But, as my old Sensai used to say; life's a bitch, then you die. Just take one day at a time until we get some more information. Then we can make some decisions together." He smiled gently. "Didn't think I'd let you hang, did you. I'll help you Ranma We all will. We'll do the best we can, just cooperate. Every thing will come out all right {I hope}." 


	2. chapter3

Insert disclaimer here:  
  
Well here it is chapter three. I hope. I'm really having trouble with the system so if this isn't posted right. Sorry. I'll try to fix it.  
  
Please, please review. Even if you don't review at least tell me you read it. Thanks.  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Ranma was shown to a room.  
  
It had a bed, desk, two chairs and on the desk was a nice laptop. He didn't have to share a bathroom. It had a shower/tub, sink and necessary.  
  
All in all it was beginning to look like things were definitely getting better. He was thinking about a shower when his stomach growled, reminding him that lunch hadn't made up for three days without food. It was almost 6:00pm and he was hungry again.  
  
"Hey! Hi! Are you the new student? I'm Sun Yao. People call me Sunny. I'm a healer. What do you do?"   
  
The girl who had stuck her head in the door was small, maybe 5", cute, and had orange hair and blue eyes.   
  
"Come on. They told me to call you for super. You look like you could use some feeding up. You're too skinny."   
  
After blasting him with a close look Sunny grabbed Ranma by the arm and dragged him down the hall.   
  
"Here is the dinning room. Better hurry or Danny, Shuba, and Leela will eat all the good stuff and all we'll get is broccoli and liver. Yuck!"   
  
Ranma hung back. Maybe he was supposed to wait until everyone else had their plates. He didn't want to start out on the wrong foot.   
  
A tall brown-haired boy with gray eyes walked up to him and pushed him to the head of the line.  
  
"I'm Senior student Shuba. You don't have to hang back. Headmaster told me about you. Don't be afraid. You won't be harmed here. You shouldn't be so shy." {Wow! He's so hesitant, like he's afraid to make a decision.}  
  
Sr. Shuba grabbed a plate and some silverware. He dumped it all on a tray and pushed it at Ranma.   
  
"Here dig in! Just tell the servers what you want. School rule: Take all you want, eat all you take."  
  
Leela and Danny were obviously related. They both had silver hair and green   
  
eyes. They were slender but they had the bodies of runners. All whipcord and rawhide.  
  
Leela frowned at Danny, who whined, "How come he gets to go first. We were here before him!"   
  
"Don't be such a sour puss. They starved him"   
  
Danny sulked a little, but then he smiled. "All right little sister.He can have your share ."  
  
Leela stuck out her tongue. "Ba-Da! Ba-da! You are such a fool! Ranma don't mind him he is such a jerk!"  
  
Leela looked at Ranma's red face. "Oh! I'm so sorry!. There is no excuse for me. Please don't be embarrassed. There aren't any secrets in this school. There aren't enough students."  
  
Shuba snarled "We weren't supposed to let him know we all knew how he got here. You Juniors couldn't keep a secret if your lips were sewn shut. I'm glad I'm graduating next semester."  
  
"Everybody get your plates and sit down."  
  
"Here Ranma don't let this bunch spoil your appetite."   
  
Shuba chivvied them all into seats.  
  
After they all got settled Shuba took up his fork and started eating like he was afraid some one would take it away. Ranma followed suit emptying his plate in less time than Shuba.  
  
"Can I get you somemore of anything. I'll wait on you this once. Kinda celebrate your freedom. After tonight, you're just another Junior Student." {Is he shy? or what}  
  
Ranma just blinked for a second. No one had ever waited on him before, except Kasumi but she waited on everyone.   
  
"Yes, please I'd like more of anything there is. With my Pop you never knew what you would be eating so I'm not too particular. As long as it's dead, I'm OK."   
  
Ranma decided he might like it here after all.  
  
Sunny turned to Ranma and began to pelt him with questions.  
  
"What do you do? Why did your Dad sell you? What is this necklace for? Why do you..... Ow!!! That thing is just hateful"  
  
Sunny stuck her stinging fingers in her mouth. She had pulled on the collar.  
  
Ranma stiffened, waiting for the pain to start. Nothing happened. {Will it punish anyone who trys to remove It? How did the slavers trigger it? Find out!}  
  
"Well! It obviously doesn't want to come off. Don't worry! Headmaster Steven Sensai will find a way to get it off. I'll help.'  
  
"What is it for? Why don't you answer me?"   
  
Leela put her hand over Sunny's mouth.  
  
"Well, rachetjaw. If you'd shut up for two seconds he might answer one or two of your very impertinent questions."  
  
Danny sniggered behind his hand. [She's really gonna' get it this time. Just look at his face] "Oh shut up! I know I'm dying to know too. But he maybe doesn't want to talk about it."  
  
Ranma wished Shuba would come back with or without food. He was beginning to feel very out of his depth and somewhat cornered.  
  
Sunny wasn't trying to be unkind, he could tell. She was just one of those people who never met a stranger, liked everyone and couldn't imagine anyone not liking her. He took a deep breath and "took the bull by the horns".  
  
"I'll start in order. I don't know what you mean by what do I do. My dad is an idiot, I don't think he really knew he was selling me. He let his greed get the best of him. The collar is a control collar, a slave collar. If I don't do as I'm told it.....hurts me. A lot." {Now they won't want anything to do with me.} Ranma bit his lip.   
  
Shuba, who had seen what was going on but had been too far away to interfere, slapped plates onto the table.  
  
"That is really going too far. After all he has been through, you just have to pick a scab. Damn it, Sunny leave him alone. He doesn't need to be reminded of bad things now. He needs time to get a grip on his new life and deal with things.  
  
"You will go to your room now and meditate on the need to think about peoples feelings before you speak!. Scat!"  
  
Sunny teared up at the realization that she probably had hurt Ranma's feelings. "Oh! Ranma what must you think of me. I'm so sorry. I really didn't think. Were they really cruel to you.? Did they beat you? Please don't be.....mmmumpf..."  
  
Danny and Leela both put hands over Sunny's mouth.  
  
"She is never going to learn, Leela. I'll take her out."  
  
Danny grabbed her arm and firmly escorted her out.  
  
Ranma just stood with his mouth open.  
  
"Well, this time I'm really going to have to tell Headmaster. She just will not learn." Shuba shook his head. "Ranma, I'm really sorry about Sunny. She has no governor on her mouth. Every thought that flits through her head just falls out it. She's going to be in real trouble this time. Her punishment will be severe." {Maybe a gag? I hope!}  
  
"No! Don't punish her! Please....I don't mind. Really I don't. She's just trying to be friendly." Ranma turned white and started to sweat. { I can't let them beat her. I hate seeing my friends hurt!} "I don't want to be responsible for her being hurt!"  
  
"Hurt! Whose going to hurt who? What's going on here? Senior Student Shuba, report!"  
  
Headmaster Steven frowned at the kids, who were all suddenly in line and standing very straight.  
  
"Ranma you don't have to fall in. In fact no one has to. I want to know what is going on here! Where is Sunny?." Steven made a face. " Don't tell me. Her Everready Bunny mouth,.....again."  
  
He glowered at Shuba and Leela, who didn't look very scared. Instead they both nodded vigorously.  
  
"I had Danny take her to her room to meditate on the merits of silence, again. But she broke nearly every rule you set for Ranma. Asked him every stupid question in the book. And I think she really embarrassed him."   
  
Steven sighed, he knew Sunny didn't mean to be unkind. She had been raised in a good home with parents who loved and spoiled her. One of the reasons she was called Sunny was that with her disposition she really couldn't understand "bad"; naughty was   
  
about as far as she got. Looking at Ranma he could see that the boy was embarrassed, looking at the floor with his head hanging, hair hiding his eyes.  
  
"Danny. You're back. Good! Go get Sunny."  
  
I know you just took her to her room, but I'd like you to bring her here. I want Ranma to see her punishment. I think he deserves that. Don't you all?"   
  
Nods from all three junior students.  
  
"This time I think I'm going to have to really make it severe. I really......"   
  
Ranma fisted his hands in front of him, knuckles white. "Please don't punish her! It's all right! I...I don't want to be responsible.....If you have to punish someone. Punish me."  
  
Steven gave Ranma a long look. {Kid's got some big ones. Doesn't even know what I'm going to do.... Well, We'll just have to teach him something, too.}  
  
"You are standing there telling me that you will take her punishment. You don't want to know what it is, you'll just take it?"   
  
Ranma nodded. "Well. Why don't you wait until you see what her punishment is? Then we'll discuss it again."  
  
Sunny sidled up to the Headmaster, head hanging.  
  
"I'm really sorry. I just let my mouth run away with me again. I didn't mean to hurt Ranma's feelings."  
  
"Sunny, I'm really angry with you this time. Ranma has gone through hell, almost literally. He needs time and support to cope with the things that happened. Not the third degree."  
  
"I'll tell you something else."  
  
"He has begged me not to punish you. He is willing to be your whipping-boy, take your punishment no matter what it is. So here is your punishment."   
  
Steven reached into his pocket and took out a small bag. Producing a small flat stone he gave it to Sunny. "Put this in your mouth and keep it there. Only spit it out if you have something to say that is worth while. I hope that having to spit out that stone will make you think before you speak."  
  
Ranma nearly fell over. This was a severe punishment?   
  
"Sir, I'm sorry I..."  
  
Steven waived his hand. "Did you really think that we would do her harm? The most severe punishment there is is four swats of the "Rod of Knowledge" applied to your "Seat of Learning" Most punishments are in the form of meditations, extra training or extra lessons. Don't be afraid of us, we really do want to help you."  
  
Steven looked at his watch. It was a little early to go to bed, but Steven ordered them all to their rooms anyway. Ranma was drooping with weariness, and everyone else was upset. Sunny in her own irrepressible way could be as devastating as a tornado.  
  
################  
  
I know this is kind of a junk chapter, but I had to introduce the other characters some how. Don't you just want to slap Sunny? She gets better later, I promise  
  
Materia-Blade Sempai Thanx for the continuing support and reviews 


	3. chapter 4

Again with the disclaimer  
  
"Sob...Sniff" You don't like me! No one is reviewing my story. How can I get better if you don't review.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Next morning Ranma woke as he normally did. Slowly, feeling groggy, grumpy and out of sorts. {Bacon, I smell bacon and eggs and toast. What else. Cinnamon! Sticky buns!!} Ranma jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and headed for the dinning room.  
  
"Hey! Stop! No running in the halls. Come here!"  
  
Ranma sidled up to the frowning man. What would happen now.  
  
"Go back to your room."   
  
Ranma walked back to the room, head hanging. {Damn! no breakfast!.}  
  
"Now walk to the dinning room. There is plenty of food." {I just have to walk?! No push ups, no anything!? Just go back and walk?}  
  
Ranma walked to the dining room, pondering this new way of punishing. Even Pop had been harder on him. Errors were punished by rounds of kata until he dropped in exhaustion. He'd have to see this Rod of Knowledge, but he had a suspicion that it wasn't much. And what the hell was a Seat of Learning?  
  
As he was eating, Shuba came up to him and said, "Headmaster wants you in his office."   
  
At the look on Ranma's face he grinned, "You're really in for it today. Poke and prod time. Don't worry about it! They'll test you to flinders. We all went through it, it's how they find out what to do with us. They test every thing from soup to nuts and then tell us what they think we ought to do with our lives. Pain in the Ass; but I've found that they really are right. The few students who have ignored them wound up in real trouble." Shuba gave Ranma a reassuring look. "You done? Let me take the tray for you. Don't expect this kind of service very often, But I really feel for you. Best get going."  
  
Ranma met Headmaster Steven in the hall outside his office. Falling in beside him as he walked, Ranma worked up his nerve.  
  
"Uhh, Sir? Headmaster? About some of those questions Sunny was asking me. What do I say? And what did she mean by what do I do? I don't understand. What are all these tests I'm suppose to be taking? Will it....never mind that . Please tell me something."   
  
Steven smiled at Ranma {At least he hasn't been completely crushed. I wonder how much of his hesitancy is normal and how much fear of punishment}  
  
"Lets see. As to Sunny's questions. Answer as much or as little as you want. If she gets to importunate....that's pushy.....tell her to piss off."  
  
"Tests are to find out what you know and how far you have gone in the arts. Also physical condition. If anything hurts, tell us immediately. Don't push yourself to exhaustion and relax."  
  
Steven patted Ranma's shoulder, relieved when he didn't draw away.  
  
"I'm afraid that some of the tests will be on that filth around your neck. We need to see what we can do about getting it off and we may, unfortunately, trigger the damn thing. If we do we'll see to it that you don't feel anything."  
  
Ranma frowned, he didn't like the thought that they might trigger the collar. How could they protect him from it? "How will you protect me? I hate to be rude but I'd really rather you didn't mess with it too much. I mean.... if you don't mind."  
  
"Well, I do mind." Steven snapped, "Kid, do you have a backbone somewhere in your body? If you do I'd like to see it."   
  
Ranma got over being scared, just like that.  
  
"You want to see back bone? OK, Here it is. I was brought up to respect my elders and be polite. But I'm telling you now if you trigger this damn collar I'm going to hurt you just as much as it hurts me. And that's a lot.'  
  
"You're so old it'll probably give you a heart attack or something."  
  
Ranma gritted his teeth and grabbed his temper stuffing his fury down deep inside.  
  
"I'm sorry. I hate loosing my temper. Stuff usually gets broken. But I meant what I said; so just be careful, alrignt?"   
  
Steven felt real relief. He wasn't broken, not even really bent.{OLD!! Heart attack!? Just you wait you little doofus.}  
  
"Kiddo, if we trigger that piece of filth and you feel it. I'll let you pound me. We really do have a lot of experience with magical objects, curses and the like."   
  
Pushing a door open he usured Ranma into a lab.  
  
Every where he looked there were blinking lights and all sorts of weird machines. It looked like something out of a sci-fi flick.  
  
"Ulp! You're gonna hook me up ta that stuff? Forget about triggering the collar! Just don't electrocute me or turn me inta a mutant! Or a puddle a' slime!"   
  
Steven couldn't help it, he started laughing, not a polite adult Ha. Ha. kind of laugh. No, it was a real belly laugh. he roared.  
  
"Oh Ranma, I'm sorry about that comment about your backbone. I know that you must be scared half to death but don't be! Just relax, go with the flow, and I'm sure that we can get some good news for you."  
  
After wading through a SAT like test called a General Education Levels and spending even more time with a shrink who asked him all the usual stupid Do you hate your father love your mother questions. (to which he took exception answering with shrugs and grunts.) Any phobias? "Grunt" Squirm, shrug. "Cats". He was shown to a dojo.  
  
Dojo!! Yay!! Ten minutes later he wasn't so sure. They had stuck little pads with wires sticking out of them all over him. and put a band around his chest.  
  
"What the hell is a stress test, I ain't got no stress. Yet!"  
  
Ranma turned sullen teenager, pouting and stubbing his toe into the floor. "And I don't need some stupid machine ta help me run. I ain't gettin on that thing."  
  
Steven who had been watching from the side as the Technicians got Ranma ready walked over and poked Ranma in the chest. "Yes, you are young man! That treadmill is the only way we can keep up with you and collect our data. Now get on it and run." Steven's eyes narrowed in challenge. "Unless you're afraid."  
  
"I'm not afraid a' some stupid machine. If ya can't keep up with me, OK. Here we go." Ranma jumped on the treadmill barely waiting long enough to let the tech hook him up.  
  
Ranma ran, and ran, and ran.  
  
After 2 hrs the tech started to fiddle with the machine. "Boss, I think the damn thing is broken. He's been running for over 2 hrs, at about 10 miles an hour. That's impossible, I mean it is .....Shit, I don't know what I mean. I see him. He's running. But he's like a machine. And I don't think he's tired yet."   
  
Steven looked up from the papers he was reading. "Tell him to stop. We've got other tests to go through. I think we can skip all the other physical conditioning tests. If he can run that long and not be out of breath. I believe that we can conclude that all his physical levels are top form. He's as strong as an ox!" {And these reports are mind boggling. That contact in Nerima is really good.}.  
  
"Ranma, Stop running. We're done with the stress test and I just got a reaport that makes any other conditioning tests unnecessary."  
  
"Now we get to have some fun. I've got some opponents lined up for you. We'll test your Martial Arts skill next."  
  
Steven watched as Ranma jumped off the treadmill, but instead of slowing down and hopping off the back, Ranma jumped straight up in the air, flipped twice and landed behind the machine. Wires and sensors flew everywhere.  
  
" Shit! I forgot about those sticky things. Sorry!" Ranma looked around.  
  
Most of the tecks were just standing with their mouths open. Ranma snickered, they looked like fish.  
  
Steven made a satisfied face, nodding to himself. "Don't worry about it. We don't need them for the next tests. Come on."   
  
Ranma moved to the middle of the mat at Steven's nod. He looked around at all the people, wondering which of them was his opponent.  
  
" Ranma! Pay attention, Kiddo! I'd like you to demonstrate any Tai-Chi you know. And a Kata from Anything Goes. Hajimeyou!"  
  
Ranma felt like he was home.  
  
The Art Martial was his love, his life, and his true joy. He showed it in every move. His form was pure and perfect, each stance flowed into the next like water into a pool. Each transition as graceful as a dancer. Each pause had purpose and was exited with smoothly rippling muscles.  
  
From Tai-Chi he moved into an Anything Goes Style power Kata. Like going from a silently flowing stream to a roaring river Ranma exploded. He punched, kicked, jumped, spun, dodged and rolled. It was as if a wholly different person had dropped from somewhere!  
  
He saw a rack of weapons and helped himself. At Steven's nod he took a staff, then swords, after that Sai. Each weapon spun a web of protection and attack, a glittering web of impenetrable beauty and deadly menace  
  
.  
  
Steven finally closed his mouth and called a halt.  
  
"Ok! Ok! Kiddo don't wear yourself out. You're a black belt in weapons, I can see that.  
  
"Let's see what you can do with a person facing you. I'll introduce you to your first opponent ."  
  
"Wendy, this is Ranma. He practices Anything Goes Style. I need you to really go all out"  
  
"Don't worry about loosing control. Frank is here just in case."  
  
"Give him a good work out."  
  
"Ranma, Wendy. She is one of those people I was telling you about. The ones that can't control their chi power. Don't frown Wendy, you know that we only tell that to people who need to know. Take off that torque. We've got your back, as always."   
  
Wendy was blond, blue eyed, 5' 9", weighed about 140 very muscular pounds and was maybe 35.  
  
She pulled a heavy gold ring from around her neck, and the hair on the back of Ranma's neck stood up. There was a battle aura around her, the power level was really high. Ranma felt it as an electrical static dancing across his skin.  
  
Wendy looked at Steven and the man beside her, "Ok, Steven, Frank, be ready to step in. I really want this, but I don't want to hurt him." She hitched her head from side to side, loosening her neck. "Well, young man. Lets get this done"  
  
Ranma took a stance, standing on one foot the other held hip high bent at the knee. He clenched his fists and nodded at Wendy. Then, for the observers, every thing went to hell in a basket.   
  
Wendy disappeared, Ranma looked up and then he disappeared. Everyone could hear the sound of fists and feet on flesh, but all they could see were blurs. Ranma realized that this woman was really good, almost as good as he was. But something was really wrong. Her battle aura was growing too fast. She was loosing control of it!  
  
Wendy aimed a kick at Ranma's head, but instead of kicking with the ball of her foot, she used the heel. The punch she landed was harder that any girl had the right to have; much less use in a sparing match. {She's realy tryin' ta hurt me. What tha hell?}  
  
Ranma dropped, rolled across the mat and jumped to his feet behind her. She wasn't quite as fast as he was but her aura made it hard to hit her. Her Reiki power repelled his punches making him have to put more power into them than he liked. He was always afraid that he might hurt someone badly. Most of the people he fought with were almost friends. Even that stupid Tatiwaki Kuno.   
  
This was different! She wanted, no needed to kill him.  
  
After fighting for some 10 minutes; in which Ranma used every tactic he knew he realized that he was going to have to take drastic measures. He knew that Wendy wasn't in control at all. She really wanted to hurt him. Ranma called up his Aura weapon.   
  
Cupping his hands, fingers curled, wrists together he called a ball of chi and shot it at her. "Mouko Takabisha!"  
  
It hit her in the back; lapping around her and knocking her down.  
  
She fell to the mat and rolled away from the blast helplessly; and straight for a rack of weight plates. {Oh, no! She's going to hit that rack. All those plates! They'll hit her!}  
  
Ranma called another blast and punched it into the rack throwing it into the wall. Weight plates stuck in the wall like coins in Styrofoam.  
  
Tecks scrambled to get the torque back on her neck and check to see if she was badly hurt. She was just stunned.  
  
"Hey, Kiddo! Are you Ok?"  
  
"Frank, you shit, you were supposed to keep an eye on me."  
  
"I'm really sorry about that. It's been so long since I got an opponent that I lost control completely."  
  
"Now you see what happens if you don't learn to control your chi. But I don't think you have any worries. That blast was really fine tuned. Just enough to break my concentration, but not enough to really hurt me. And that re-blast. I've never seen anyone do that. Most people need at least an hour to recharge. I can see why Steven is so impressed.  
  
"Hey! Easy! Easy!"  
  
Ranma had grabbed her, checking her over himself and was now hugging her and trying to hide tears.  
  
"I coulda' killed you. I hate this. I really hate when I have to use Mouko Takabisha."   
  
Wendy patted his back for a moment, Steven had walked over and was holding them both in his long, strong arms.  
  
"Stop shaking! Don't be so upset! She's OK and so are you."  
  
"I really am sorry about this. I didn't realize how much power she had built up. I never would have set you two at each other if I had."  
  
Ranma quickly scrubbed his eyes and gulped a couple of times.  
  
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be unmanly. I was just really scared. I usually get mad when I'm scared. But this time there ain't nothing to get mad at. So I wound up acting like a jack-ass. I'm really sorry. It won't happen again."  
  
Wendy grinned at him. "Hey, it's nice to see a guy with some sensibility. I really get tired of all the testosterone around here. Stay as nice as you are and you'll have girls all over you."  
  
Wendy looked at her watch, "Damn! If I don't get going I'm going to be late for my class. Well, buy now. Don't let Steven brow beat you. He's really a big teddy bear."  
  
Wendy blithely trotted out the door leaving a puzzled Ranma in her wake.  
  
" 'Scuse me all to hell!! Doesn't she realize what just happened. She was really trying to kill me. What the fuck??"  
  
Ranma turned to Steven his eyes demanding explanations.  
  
"Kiddo, she hasn't a clue. She doesn't remember most of what happens. She couldn't live with herself if she did. All she remembers is the actual fight, not how she was feeling. That torque, the necklace, keeps her sane and under control. But she can never leave the Compound."  
  
Steven rubbed his hands together happily. "But I'm glad to see that we aren't going to have that problem with you. Two blasts in less than two seconds. Great control, and your attitude. I'm really impressed.  
  
"And I really owe you an apology. My reports on Anything Goes style are scanty at best. I'm really sorry I insulted your Style. Please accept my apology."  
  
Ranma grinned from ear to ear; an adult apologizing to him, he might really get to like it here. "Apology accepted. I don't know who your spys were watchn' but either the guy was playin' around or your spys are blind."  
  
Ranma peeked at Steven from under his bangs.  
  
"Brat!" Steven shook Ranma gently by the shoulder.  
  
"Old geezer!" Ranma shrugged his hand off with a laugh.   
  
"This next test isn't one I'm looking forward to conducting, Ranma."  
  
"It's the one on that collar. We really need to get some data. Thank God you aren't under any curses."  
  
Steven furrowed his brow in worry. Ranma looked down twisting his body back and forth, shoulders one way, hips the other, back and forth.  
  
"Well, there is this tiny Jushenkyo curse. See..."  
  
Steven turned so slowly that Ranma cringed. "A tiny Jushenkyo curse", he whispered. "A TINY JUSHENKYO CURSE. SHIT! PISS! FUCK! AND DAMN, DOUBLE DAMN! "   
  
Steven looked like he was about to cry or punch someone or something.  
  
Ranma jumped onto the ceiling light. Hanging from the light he watched as Steven picked up a desk and threw it across the lab. Followed by breaking another into pieces the size of saucers. Two fifty pound weight plates followed that, sticking into the wall beside the others from the rack.   
  
Ranma dropped from the light, appearing in front of Steven in an instant. "Hey! Don't have a cow! I..You. Geeze! You'll have a stroke here. Calm down! Calm down!. I don't turn into anything gross. I just turn into a.... well.....a girl. There now........see.......I   
  
mean........Uhh.......That's not so bad. Is it?"  
  
Ranma got a really good look at the others in the room. They all looked horrified. And they were looking at Ranma not Steven. "OK. Let me have it! What's the bad news. 'Cause I can see that there's some."  
  
" A Jushenkyo curse can't be broken. Oh, there are all kinds of supposed cures. They don't work, or only work once."  
  
"That collar was put on you to control you, and suppress your chi power. This is really bad. If that curse has bounded that collar to your chi it's there forever. I apologize for loosing my temper. But this is just too much. I hate slavery and all its trappings. And to have to leave you in that...thing. It makes me sick! Well, it can't be helped. We'll do the tests and see what we've got. Lets go."  
  
"Lay down here" Steven motioned to a table. It had straps on it that Ranma didn't like the look of.  
  
"Hey! I don't wanna' be tied down. You're not gonna do that ta me. I won't do it. Get away! Get off me!" Ranma swatted away the hands that grabbed at him.  
  
"Yes! Get off him. If he won't cooperate we'll just have to do this without safety precautions. If he hurts someone it's on his head."   
  
Steven knew he had Ranma when he turned his head and snarled. "Ok I know when I'm beat. Get it over with." Ranma hopped onto the table and lay down.  
  
I'm still whining. Please review. If a cliff-hanger can't get you to review What will?  
  
Materia-Blade: What do you think? I'll deal with the curse and collar in the next chapter.  
  
Madman Dark Heretic: I'm trying . Thankx for your kind review. You get a cookie. 


	4. chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own etc, etc.  
  
First: Many thanks to Animom for getting me started. With out her kind e-mail this fic would be posted worse than it is.  
  
Terrie and Janissa: wait a chapter or two (I'm soo evil)  
  
Archangel: (For my fic they are more or less the same thing) This was written before rewrite. And if you think I'm gonna turn the Wild Horse loose with a spirit gun you're nuts. He's got Shi Shi Hokodan and Mouko Takabisha I think that's enought destruction for anyone. :-)   
  
Taxzombie: Thank you very much. I think all your questions will be answered in future chapters. As to the format. Please tell me how to fix. I'm really having probs.   
  
Chapter 5  
  
Vignette  
  
Technician; "Oh, Shit!! did you see that? I've never seen anyone that strong. At least not a human. I never saw any human lift that much before....that wasn't even an official test. Just him moving the whole rack out of the way. No, don't show me the numbers I don't wanna know. It's too scary."  
  
Technician Two: "Yeah! You should have seen him run. Like a machine, just chugged off about 20 miles in two hrs. that works out to an even 10 miles an hour."  
  
Tec. "I don't see why he dosen't just rip that collar off his neck and give it a good heave. I know I would."  
  
Tec Two: "Yeah. And you'd wind up just as dead as he would. You can't just break something like that. It has built in punishments. If you pull on it too hard they get triggered and you're in a world of hurt. Actually break it and you're dead. Discourages other slaves from trying the same thing."  
  
Ranma settled onto the table and got as comffortable as he could when strapped down. They had put padded cuffs around his wrists and ankles, other straps ran across his knees and chest. They had also put blocks on either side of his head with another strap across his forehead.  
  
"I hate this! I really, really hate this!"  
  
Ranma pulled on the straps and felt them give a little. "Maybe this won't be too bad."   
  
The clear mask they put over his face didn't bother him, until he started to get drowsy. "Wha'z this? I feel ....so....funny..." Ranma went to sleep.  
  
He never remembered them triggering the collar. He never remmembered the pain, the chanting, the convulsions or screaming until he was hoarse. Thank God for small favors.  
  
Vignette Two:  
  
"Get heavier chains! Something that will hold an oni!"  
  
"This kid's going to hurt someone!"  
  
"We can't get him to stop convulsing, damn it! Steven, we gotta do something else. He's going to die if we don't."  
  
Sunny: "I can't get it off. Mom, help me! I don't know what to do. I can't separate the curse from his chi."  
  
Ranma woke up.  
  
His throat was sore. In fact, much of him hurt in one way or another.  
  
He slowly pried his eyes open and looked around. The first thing he saw was Headmaster Steven. He was sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed. His head on his folded arms which were resting on the bed. When Ranma moved Steven opened his eyes, sat up and blinked a few times.  
  
"Hey, Kiddo. How you feeling? " Steven sounded weary and sad. "I should wait until you get it together, call you into my office and have an 'official' talk with you, but I'm not the formal type. So, Here it is, short and bitter."  
  
Ranma felt his stomach clench.  
  
"We can't get the effects of that collar canceled"   
  
Ranma's hand flew to his neck. The collar was gone! " But the collar. It's gone! What do you mean?" Ramna's hoarse vioce surprised him. {How did I get so horse!}   
  
Steven rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how much Ranma knew about magical restraints, forbidding and such.  
  
"Well I guess I need to start at the beginning. That collar in and of itself was just a 'carrier' what I mean by that is it was a vehicle to get a restrain spell attached to your chi.  
  
"How it works is complicated and not really necessary to this explanation. Magic works in different ways with different people."  
  
"Your curse bonded the restraining spell to your chi so firmly that we couldn't get it off. But we managed to switch it."   
  
Ramna looked puzzled, "Switch it to what? How?"  
  
Steven looked embarrassed. 'Well, Kiddo. The only thing we could do was change things around . You'll never have to worry about changing in to a girl when you don't want to. But you're still cursed."  
  
"Still cursed, but I don't have to worry about turning into a girl anymore? That's good news! Why do you look so sad? "  
  
"You're still cursed. We switched the restraining spell to your curse. It now restrains the curse so you won't change unless you want to, but both the curse and the spell are still there, permanently. I'm sorry! We failed you."  
  
Ranma folded his arms over his chest and looked at the ceiling. {Think, baka think. What to say.}  
  
Ranma struggled to sit up. It wasn't very dignified to carry on a conversation with someone flat on your back.   
  
"I still don't understand. If I have .....Huh? I don't remember this." Ranma looked at the bracelet on his right wrist. It was gold with a dragon engraved around it, tail in its mouth.  
  
"Where did this come from. I don't wear jewelry. It's not "manly" or so Pop always told me. I kinda' like it though." Ranma examined the bracelet for a minute.   
  
"Ranma, that bracelet is part of you now. That's what I'm trying to tell you. We switched the restraining spell to that bracelet. As long as you wear it you stay a boy. But take it off and try to leave it some where? Can't be done. It'll follow you. We changed the punishment spell to a follow spell. Here, Just pull on it. It'll come off. But only for you."  
  
Ranma pulled the bracelet, which came off in his hand.  
  
"Give it here." Steven stood up and walked to the door. The bracelet suddenly wrenched itself from his hand and flew back to Ranma. But it snapped itself around his neck!  
  
"What? Hey! I'm...I thought you said!?"  
  
Steven's jaw dropped, Ranma was just about the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, Petite, buxom, with beautiful large eyes and red hair."Holy shit! Je.. I mean Damn...I...Crap!"  
  
Ranma flapped his hand. "Yeah Yeah....I heard it all before. Wipe your mouth. How does this thing work?"   
  
Ranma pulled the necklace off and looked at it. It was the dragon engraving only much larger. It coiled in on itself, the head and tail forming a clasp. The mouth closed on the tail about two inches from the tip which formed a flat fan shaped pendant.   
  
Suddenly Ranma didn't feel so good. He had a strange pressure in his chest. Pressing his hand to it he looked at Steven  
  
Steven managed to get control of himself. "Put that back on. That's why you can't leave it anywhere. It won't allow itself to be separated from you for long. If someone else takes it. It just returns. But if you try to leave it. You see what I mean. We failed you. But we did the best we could."  
  
Ranma put the necklace against his wrist. It changed into the bracelet and circled it. He looked at it then pulled it off and touched it to his neck. It changed and so did he. He switched it back and forth from his neck to his wrist three or four times. Then he nodded.  
  
"This is great! I don't feel that you have failed me at all. You did the best you could and that is all anyone could ask. You didn't have to do anything at all. I'm really grateful. Arigato Gozaimasu!"   
  
Steven smiled at Ranma, his eyes crinkeling up. "Hey, Kiddo. Shimaimasen, about drooling, I mean. But Damn, you're really something as a girl. Not that you're not as a guy. But I don't swing that way. And.....someone shut me up! I'm talking and I can't stop! I'm really making a fool out of myself. It's just that usually when a guy turns into a girl the girl is butt ugly."  
  
Ranma, used to all the reactions of people to his change just shrugged. "Don't worry about it I've heard it all. Just get your foot out of your mouth. I think this is really a good thing. It could be useful."  
  
Before he could get any farther the door flew open and Sunny rushed in. "I hear that Ranma is awake."  
  
"Oh! Ranma I'm so sorry we couldn't get that tangle resolved I wanted so much to fix it for you are you mad at me please don't be I really tried hard and they wouldn't let me finish because they said I was using up to much reiki that's stupid I almost had it but Mom stopped me just before I could finish so She had to do the rest by herself because I passed out when they pulled me back'  
  
Steven got out of the way as Sunny threw herself on Ranmas neck and started to cry. "Well, Sunny, I think you have it mixed up a little"  
  
Steven looked at Ranma. "She nearly killed herself trying to get that off. She didn't faint because we pulled her off. She fainted because she used up nearly all her chi fighting those spells."   
  
Ranma pushed Sunny away enough to look at her. She looked terrible, her face was gray and her eves were circled. "Sunny no baka! I think you did great. I'm really mad at you. You shouldn'ta hurt yourself . Don't ya know that if ya use up all your chi you'll die! Stupid Girl! Stop cryin'. What kinda' ungrateful jerk do ya think I am? Here!"  
  
Ranma handed her the tissues Steven had given him. "No! Dummy! Wipe, then blow"  
  
Sunny sniffled wetly. She smiled so happily that Ranma felt happy just looking at her. "Now I know why you call her Sunny. But Headmaster, can you tell me how she does that. I mean how does she talk so much with out breathing"   
  
Steven laughed, "I think she breathes through her ears."  
  
"Here Sunny get off the bed. It's not proper."  
  
Ranma flushed as he realized that Sunny was sitting astraddle of his thighs in a position that would have driven Akane into a rage. "Un, Sunny, ya need ta get offa' me. Please! I don't think that lady likes it very much."   
  
"Sun Yao!! Get off that bed at once. where is your head? You know better than to plaster yourself all over some.....Yeek." The lady pulled Sunny away from her neck. "There, dear, you know I can't stay mad at you for long. but you really must watch PDA you embarrass the young men."  
  
Turning her head and rather unceremoniously dumping Sonny onto her feet, Lady Yao, Sonny's Mother said. "I'm Sunny's mother Maa Yao. I see that you have discovered our poor efforts in your behalf did not yield the results you wished for."  
  
Ranma smiled at the woman, who was the spitting image of Sonny; only with blond hair. "That's OK. I think this has turned out good because I have decided to be a body guard "   
  
Turning to Steven, Ranma shrugged. "I wanted ta wait until I was in a more dignified position. Flat on my back doesn't seem a "manly" position to discuss the rest of my life from, but since when do I get ta do anything in a normal way?"  
  
Ranma sat up while Steven cranked the bed into a more comfortable position and Lady Yao plumped pillows.  
  
Sunny helpfully got in everyone's way.  
  
Lady Yao finally sent Sunny out of the room so Steven and Ranma could talk privately and remarked that she'd better go to to make sure that Sonny didn't sneak back.  
  
"You need more rest young man. You really had a hard struggle, even if you don't remember it."  
  
"Sun Yao, young lady, I want you back in your bed this instant."  
  
Steven sighed in relief. "Well, I'm glad Maa Yao came along. That young lady is one of that most tiring people I have ever met. And you didn't hear me say that." Steven sat down wiping sweat off his forehead.   
  
"You really are an amazing young man. Is life and lemons your credo?"  
  
At Ranma's puzzled look. Steven repeated the trite but true saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  
  
"Oh, yeah. I guess you could say that. I mean what's the use a cryin' over somethin that you can't do nothin' about? You have ta get on with life."  
  
Ranma leaned back in the bed frowning in concentration. "I know ya need me ta make up my mind about what I wanna do with my life. Ya said it's not fair for me ta have ta make up my mind so early in life. But "Life's a bitch and then you die' or so ya said."  
  
"I don't think life's a bitch, I think some a' us are here for a reason that transcends fairness. You're one of 'em and so am I. So we start early in life an' do the best we can. "I'm here ta help people. I think I'd like to be a bodyguard. I don't think I'd be good at much a' anything else. Wha'da ya think?"  
  
Ranma had been watching Steven. His nods and smiles told him what he wanted to know. "And by not gettin' rid of my curse, but controllin' it instead. I've got a perfect disguise. Who's gonna suspect a gu-urrl of bein' able ta do anythin' like that. Big supprise! I know in my girl form I'm not as good as I am in my boy form, but that can be fixed with practice. Whadaya say ta that Mr. We-failed-ya?"   
  
Steven couldn't say when he had been prouder of a student. "I think that I really want you on my side. You think faster and better than any student we've had in a long time. I don't remember when I have been prouder of anyone!"  
  
"I'll make up your class schedule with your chosen profession in mind."  
  
"Now get some rest! This has been tiring for all of us. You're as white as Sonny and I feel like I've been dragged through a hedge."   
  
"Ok, Boss. I need sleep. But I wanna .........write........zzzzzzzzzzzzz.  
  
Entire chapter rewritten.  
  
Gah! Hope this is better.  
  
. 


	5. chhapter 6

Disclaimer and all that.  
  
Authors Notes. Thanks to all my kind reviewers. I really appreciate your help and support. I think I need to make a confession. I have never seen one single episode of the anime. We don't get it where I live. I have manga 1-4 and whatever I can find on the Net. So you all have helped me greatly. Please keep up the good work . Also remember it's going to be some what OOC in order to tell my story. Again thank you soo much  
  
Chapter six  
  
Ranma frowned at his school schedule. {Let's see Lit., Chemistry, Weapons, Strategy, History, Field Medicine.(Herbs and Simples) sounds different but more useful. After school activities Field training and Martial arts training. meditation.}He folded the schedule and put it in his book bag. It was filled with all the books and other things that he would need for school. He also had a look in his closet. {Jacket, I need a jacket and a uniform} Finding everything he needed, Ranma got ready for his first day of school in the Compound.   
  
Ranma sat down at the table outside the door of the school building. He flopped onto the bench beside Leela. Danny sat beside her and Sunny across from him. Shuba was leaning over Leela's shoulder looking at her class schedule. "Do I havta' take Field training. I'm a thief, I stay in the city. Not out in the country with a bunch of critte' crawlers. Yuck!" Shuba laughed tugging a lock of her silver hair, 'Yes you need it. What if you have to escape from the shadow realms and wind up in the Rockies of America or something?'   
  
"DIE!! RANMA SAOTOME!!!"   
  
"Oh, Shit! Kuno! Where tha hell did that ass-hole come from?" Ranma didn't even loose his famous temper. He just decided that he wasn't putting up with this any more. When Kuno had attacked him in Nerima it had been child's play and they both knew it. But Ranma knew that now it was time to stop playing around. He wasn't going to put up with much more in the way of stupidity. People had gotten hurt before in fights with Kuno {Akane's beautiful hair came to mind}   
  
Turn, catch blade of shinai between palms. Twist, push down. Shinai breakes. Ranma punches Tatiwaki Kuno in face. Kuno falls down, Ranma breaks arm. All She Wrote. Time elapsed two tenths of a second.  
  
"Kuno, you shit-head. Now ya done it! We're both in it deep. We ain't gonna be standin' in the hall holding buckets. We'll both get a beatin' over this. And a talkin' to. And when Steven gets through talkin' I'd rather take two beatin's. Damnit!" Ranma nearly kicked Kuno; but he was down and that wouldn't be fair. "I really, really like it here and I wanna get off on the right foot with the staff. Where the hell did you come from?"  
  
Tatiwaki just groaned. His arm hurt and he was truly puzzled. Ranma had never really hurt him before. His over romanticized psyche couldn't handle the real world, only the one that existed in his head.   
  
"Hey! What's your malfunction.! Why did you jump Ranma?" Sunny looked Kuno over with a frown. "I'll heal your arm for you: but don't get the wrong idea I don't like you at all. Poor Ranma." Leela and Danny had taken up defensive stances. Shuba had run for Headmaster Steven. "Ranma hold him so I can heal his arm. You'll need to straighten it out first." Leela relaxed a bit. Danny sighed. Ramna was in trouble and so was this ass. Fighting was strictly forbidden.  
  
Ranma complied, pulling Kuno's arm straight and holding him while he struggled. "Hold still! She can't do anything with you kickin' around. And screamin' won't get you anywhere either. You brought this all on yourself." Ranma had no sympathy what so ever.  
  
Tatiwaki struggled some and screamed once when Ranma set his arm . "You broke the fair Akane's heart. You ran away and never wrote her. She cried for hours. You've been gone over a week. And the pig-tailed girl has disappeared as well." Sunny looked at Ranma, "What the hell is he babbling about. What pig-tailed girl? Who is   
  
Akane?" Ranma decided that now was the time to start explanations. "I'm the pig-tailed girl and Akane is my only real fiancee. I'll explain more later. Here comes Steven and he's got fire in his eye. Stand up Kuno. Stop actin' like a dope" Ranma dragged Kuno to his feet, giving him a shake. "Thanks Sunny."  
  
"Ok Ranma, I thought I told you absolutely no fighting. Only supervised practice bouts. Kuno, I don't know what you were doing at your old school, but at this school no one, and I mean NO one carries even a shinai. I thought we discussed this yesterday. My office NOW! Danny, Leela, Shuba! I want written reports as soon as possible." Steven almost literally had steam coming out of his ears. He marched Ranma and Tatiwaki to his office and shut the door.  
  
"Ranma, you first. Start talking and you better make it good." Steven crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair.   
  
Ranma rubbed the back of his head and then pulled his pig-tail. "Damnit!! Tatiwaki's crazy as a junk yard rat. He's been harassin' my fiancé, Akane, for years. Even before I knew her. He set up this stupid rule at school that only someone who could beat her in a fight could date her. So every day she has to fight a buncha' hentai before she can get in the door. I came along and beat the crap outa all of 'em and put a stop ta that foolishness but Tatiwaki decided that I ain't good enough for Akane and kept attackin' me every day or so. Oh! and he's in love with my other side. Calls me the pig-tailed girl. A buncha other guys and a girl fight me too but they don't amount ta much. Except for Ryouga. But that's a story for another time. Tatiwaki's really good with a sword but not much otherwise" Ranma caught Tatiwaki's face on his foot, at shoulder height, holding him with ease by shifting his weight to counter his efforts to dodge. "So here we are. I'm sick an' tired a' tryin' not ta hurt 'im. I'm warnin' ya! Figure out some way ta convince this idiot ta quit or I'm really goin' ta hurt 'im bad next time. No matter how much or hard ya beat me, and I'll keep it up till he quits or you kick one of us out. I'll never attack him but I'll defend myself."  
  
Steven sprang over the desk while Ranma was talking and dragged Tatiwaki off Ranma and shoved him into a chair. "Stop that right now! We had a talk about this sort of thing yesterday. I thought you understood; if you can't get your act together you will never leave the Compound again. I promise you! And we can arrange for you to be further confined if need be. You can't go around attacking people because they have violated your weird code of conduct. Now it is your turn to explain yourself. So far you are in the wrong and Ranma is in the right. From what I've seen you're lucky he didn't loose his temper."  
  
"Ranma Saotome has no honor! He is a despicable commoner. He beats me because he won't fight fair. He uses Anything Goes hand to hand; I fight with a sword, honorably. He brawls like a common street fighter. I will not admit defeat till he does it with a sword." Tatiwaki hunched in the chair and glared at Steven. "He keeps braking my Shinai instead of fighting me in an acceptable manner."  
  
Steven just shook his head. This was going to involve something that he didn't want to do. "Ok Ranma, you know what I said to you. But this is serious, I can't get out of what I have to do. The rules are very fair. The one who attacked gets 3 lashes, and the one who did the most damage gets three. So you both will be getting three lashes." Steven took a bamboo rod from a corner behind his desk. Ranma blinked once, it was no thicker than his index finger.   
  
"Tatiwaki, you first. Then Ranma. I really hate this part of my job. I feel like a child abuser. But some times corporal punishment is the only way to get your attention. And you are the one who didn't pay attention. Bend over the desk." Steven watched as Tatiwaki bent over the desk. Then he sighed and gave Tatiwaki three swats on the rear end. They wern't very hard. "Now I am very dissapointed in you. You gave me your solomn vow that you wouldn't cause any trouble. That hurts my feelings. I trusted your word and you broke it almost before it was given. Here I have vouched for you myself. You know that you were headed for a mental institution before I brought you here. You assured me that you're capable of controling yourself. But I see that you don't even seem to want to make an effort. I truely hate striking a student for any reason; however, the rules are very clear. Ranma dosn't deserve what I have to do now. However; he was aware of the rules as well, so Ranma if you would please." Steven indicated that Ranma should also bend over the desk.  
  
Ranma bent, teeth gritted. He wasn't afraid of the pain, he knew that Steven wasn't going to hit him any harder than a sharp pat. He was mad because he had let Steven down. Three swats later, swats that barely knocked the dust from his clothing, Ranma straightened up. "Steven, Headmaster, please forgive me. I'm truly sorry. I shoulda found some other way. Run even. I shouldn'ta let my pride get the better a me." Ranma wiped at his eyes.  
  
"Saotome, you are truly a coward." Tatawaki sneered. "Crying over such a little thing. Ha!"  
  
Ranma glared at Tatiwaki. "You're so stupid. He could beat me ta a pulp and I wouldn't shed a tear or make a sound. I'm not cryin' 'cause he hit me! I'm cryin' 'cause I deserve ta be hit. I gave him my word I 'd obey the rules. And at the first test I failed 'im. You babble about honor an' Bushido, but you wouldn't know true honor if it bit ya in the ass. "  
  
Tatiwaki gulped, he hadn't seen Ranma look like this ever. His eyes seemed to glow with a kind of red light. He really looked dangerous for the first time in his experience. Then the essence of what Ranma was saying hit him, square between the eyes. "Oh! I never thought. I...I owe you an apology, Master Steven. I am sorry that I too failed you. " Tatiwaki started on one of his elaborate speeches.  
  
"Steven, If ya don't shut 'im up now you're gonna have ta give me another three, 'cause I truly can't stand ta hear him rant n' rave just now." Ranma wiped the tears off his face. "I'm tired of 'im. Tired a' his stupidity. Tired a' his play actin'. One a' the reasons that ya didn't understand Anything Goes is 'cause I tried so hard not ta do this idiot any harm. I've had it with 'im. I've warned ya, but just ta make sure ya understand I mean business. I'll repeat myself. If he attacks me one more time I'll break somethin' important. I'll make sure he doesn't attack anyone for at least six months. If that doesn't work and he attacks me a second time I'll make sure that he never holds a sword again. If he attacks any of the others. I'll kill him and take the consequences. They ain't fighters, they could get really hurt. 'cause this baka ain't got the sense of a' box a' rocks."  
  
Steven knew that he had a real situation on his hands. Ranma was as good natured a kid as he had ever seen. But even a saint can be driven to violence if the situation is right. Ranma had evidently been pushed that one inch too far.  
  
"Well, I can't say that I blame you much. But we can't have the students fighting. I understand that this is a grudge of long standing, at least on Mr. Kuno's part. Tell me why you have never faced him with a Shinai."   
  
Ranma shrugged, "Ain't got one"  
  
"Ah! As simple as that? Well, we'll get you the real thing and Tatiwaki as well. I want this settled before someone winds up dead." Steven called his secretary. "Tell all the other students what's going on. Then have them come to the dojo, all the teachers as well." Steven stalked away with both boys in tow. He'd read the reports later, even if he did know what they said.  
  
In the dojo Steven unlocked a storage room containing all kinds of weapons. At Ranma's look he explained. " The lab has its own weapons and they are locked up there when they aren't needed. The dojo has its own compliment of "sharps" and they are locked up in this room. Ranma, if I ever see you with a sharp weapon with out my express permission you will be confined to your room for a week no visitors what so ever and double the home work. Understood?"  
  
Ranma nodded solemnly. "Yes, Sir. I understand. I won't let you down again."  
  
Steven handed Ranma a sword. "How's that one. Balance good for you?" He also gave Tatiwaki a sword. "Here's one for you, too. Now, here's the way it goes. First blood. I'll referee. My word is final. If I call the fight and you don't stop at once, you'll be expelled. Ranma that means that you go back to your Father. Tatiwaki you will be confined to a cottage on the grounds or sent to Imperial Hospital. Do you both understand?" Tatiwaki paled and nodded. Ranma just nodded. "I insist that you both exercise self control. Ranma I believe that you have plenty. Tatiwaki, I don't believe you have the self control of a gnat Warm up! Get used to the weapon you're using."  
  
One of the instructors approached Steven, "Steven! Don't you think that you are being reckless. These boys aren't..."  
  
Steven turned his head slowly, you could practically hear his neck creak. "Mr. Sasaki, I don't believe I asked you for your opinion. However, since you asked so politely. These boys are two of the finest swordsmen in the world today and fooling around with them is going to cause more problems in the long run. Let them draw a little blood now or loose a limb later. Just relax and watch the show. If you can see them at all."  
  
"Kuno, ya jack-ass! Get over here. I'm waitin' on ya. Stop sittn' there composin' haiku. Pansy!" Ranma was ready after taking a few swings to get the balance of his sword. He didn't use weapons, not feeling the need for one. But just because he didn't use them it didn't mean that he couldn't. The real reason that he didn't use them was that his Pop usually sold them for food and liquor.  
  
"I'm Dr. Carlson, I will be coordinating this fight. Strip to the waist. please. I will call first blood. Headmaster Steven will be referee. If he calls a foul the fight is ended. Fouls are: cutting below the waist or on the face. Anything below the mid thigh is counted as fair. If you are called on to separate you will do so at once. Understood!? " At their nods he continued. "Take your stance! Begin!"  
  
Kuno stepped forward, raised his sword and yelled 'Mehn!' Ranma shifted just enough to dodge his swing. Next Kuno jumped into the air, sailing over Ranma's head "Ryu....eeep!" Ranma reached up and grabbed Kuno by the ankle and jerked him out of the air. "Stand still and fight, ya damned grasshopper. Ya' want ta' fight with swords stay on the ground. I'll kill ya if we go air-borne." Ranma hadn't even raised his sword.  
  
Spectators exclaimed and pointed.(Hey, he still has his sword sheathed. What the hell is that!)   
  
Ranma held his sword casually, as if he barely knew it was there. "Kuno, get ready cause I'm commin' for ya. AAww! Poor Kuno. Gotcha!" Ranma drew his sword. That was all most of the observers saw. Kuno was just able to see Ranma draw his sword slash him and return to Holding a Feather stance.  
  
"Blood to Ranma Saotome!" Ranma smirked.   
  
Kuno just stared at the Dr. "First blood? I'm not bleeding." He looked down at his chest to see a very shallow cut from just under his left pectoral muscle across his chest to the same place on his right. Tinny beads of blood dotted it like garnets on a thread. "What? How?"   
  
Ranma shook his head. "It's a hidden style. I learned it from a guy in the wilds a' northern Japan. The last teacher a' this style ta pass on the premier move died teaching it ta the guy who taught me. It's nothing ta mess 'round with."   
  
Tatiwaki grabbed Ranma by the shoulders. "I must learn this style. It is the penultimate . I must know all the secrets I will be your student." He shook Ranma slightly. "I ,Tatiwaki Kuno, know this. Ranma Saotome is the penultimate samurai, gentile, glorious, merciful, graceful in defeat, generous in victory. mmmummph!"   
  
Ranma smacked Kuno in the mouth, with his foot. "Shut up, ya dummy. I wouldn't teach ya this style if ya begged me on your knees. Ya ain't worthy. Ya don't have an idea in the world how ta use it. Ya'd go round pickin fights just ta show off. It's no flash style. Ya pick up a sword, ya make a decision. Ya either get ready ta kill or ya get ready ta die. Fancy words an' ceremonies don't change the fact that a sword is a weapon, weapons are used ta kill. Ya cut someone they heal. Ya kill em there's no goin' back. Ya don't know the secret a' steel. When ya understand it in your heart come back. I'll listen ta ya then, maybe." Ranma was disgusted. Kuno didn't do anything by halves. Either he liked you or he hated you. There was no indifference.  
  
Kuno started to drop to his knees. Steven grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back to his feet. "Get up. Even if Ramna said he would teach you. I wouldn't let him. I can see that I need to send you to the clinic. You arn't right. Here, take him to the lab. I want a full battery of blood tests done on him. He's got to be bi-polar or something. This isn't normal."   
  
Steven seethed. This kid was a real nut. Too proud, rich and self-centered for anyone's good. No one in his family could do anything with him. He was supernaturally fast, good at martial arts and crazy.  
  
########################################################################  
  
Yay! Nother chapter done. I hope you are begining to see where I'm going with this.   
  
Materia-Blade. I know what you're talking about. One of Mom's friends used to call me Sugarbuns. But there's a reason. (I need conflect. No story with out conflict)  
  
Please review, review. Without reviews I feel like I'm talking to myself. 


	6. chapter 7

thanks to Sasami Tombo for a nice review  
  
Blaze Stryker; Damn! I thought I filed those serial numbers off :-)   
  
All other reviewers thanks.  
  
Several of you asked where Kuno cane from. Sorry you'll have to wait a few chapters  
  
Chapter Seven   
  
"DIE, RANMA SAOTOME"   
  
"AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!! FUCK! Who's it now?" Ranma looked around hurriedly. His quick reflexes let him catch sight of his attackers. But his courage failed him when he saw who they were. Sunny and Leela drooped out of the tree he had walked under.  
  
"MEGA-MAJOR TICKLE ATTACK" Sunny pushed Ranma, Leela grabbed his shoulders and pulled. Ranma fell over onto his back. "EEK!! Get him! Pull his shirt up! Get his shoes!" The giggling girls proceeded to suit action to words. Sunny knew where Ranma was ticklish, so Sunny grabbed Ranma by the ankles and pulled off one of his shoes, Leela thrust her hands under Ranmas shirt. Their fingers danced along his ribs and across the soles of his feet. Ranma laughed till tears ran from his eyes, he rolled in the soft, cool grass and begged for mercy. "NNOOO!! Help!! Ssave me! I give! I give!! NO more, please." Ranma couldn't stop laughing.   
  
After several minutes of tickling by the girls and begging by the helpless boy, they collapsed in a heap.   
  
"Well, I'm glad to see that you can have fun. But could you not scare the staff into fits while you're doing it." Steven's amused voice brought Ranma to attention, more or less . If you can come to attention while pined down by two snickering girls. "I really would not recomend jumping Ranma without at least that much warning. You girls are asking for it. You know that don't you" Steven tried to look stern but his twitching lips gave him away.   
  
"Best get going. You are all late for class as it is. Go! Scat! Shoo!" Steven flapped his hand at the teens.  
  
" Well, that makes me feel much better. Dorie, did you see them. They got him to relax for the first time since he's been here. He's such a solomon kid, I was afraid that he didn't know how to have fun." Steven turned to his secretary. Dorie smiled back at Steven. "I finally got the last reports from our contact. You wouldn't believe some of the hair brained schemes he's been through. Some really scary stuff. I have the synopsis here, but I think you should read the full version. Something about a Neko-Ken, Kun something. Really weird."   
  
Ranma looked around the classroom. There were only five students counting himself. "Un, where're the rest a' the kids. This can't be all a' us. Is it?!" Ranma felt a little scared, after all that had happened to him in his life he was beginning to get tired of surprises. This last month was just the nastiest so far and he was still feeling the effects.  
  
"Hello, Ranma. My name is Mr. Cox. I'm your Homeroom teacher and your Strategy teacher. I've been told that Steven, as usual, didn't tell you much of what goes on here. He always leaves this up to me." All the others laughed and nodded. "And as usual in the Compound, we live on the edge of chaos. So I'll start your introduction to life in the Shadows by asking you if you know what a mission statement is."   
  
Ranma scowled and shrugged. "Haven't gota' clue . Why don'tca just spit it out an' save me tha trouble a askin' a' bunch a' annoyin' questions. I'm sure ta' miss tha' only one that'll keep me outa' trouble."   
  
"Ok, Mr. Saotome. We're running a little hot and cold right now aren't we? That's to be expected. Considering your background and what you've been through. We can make some allowances." Mr Cox smiled at Ranma kindly.  
  
"I don't know what you're babbling about an' I don't care. I don't need no pity, nor codlin' neither. So you got somthin' ta' say, say it.' Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and sulked as only a pissed off 16 year old can.  
  
Mr. Cox sighed and looked at the ceiling. {Give me patience and I need it now} "A mission statement is a, well it's a short report, telling people what the intention of a group or organization is. Or sometimes it is a report telling a group of operatives what they are supposed to accomplish on an assignment."  
  
"What tha hell are you guys? Like Mission Impossible? What the fuck are the Shadows, an' why did they want me?" Ranma was very confused and when he got confused it made him angry. An angry Ranma Saotome was a bad thing. "Ya' said ya' had some answers. And I'd like 'em soon or do I have ta shake 'em outa ya, ya' dope." Ranma clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles cracked and turned white.  
  
Sunny grabed Ranma around the neck. Ranma, startled, gave her a shove. "Get offa' me. Don't touch me! Why is everybody always grabbin' and pullin' on me?" Ranma started to shake. He couldn't stand much more of people pushing and pulling him every which way.   
  
Danny and Leela caught Sunny before she could fall on the floor. "Hey! Ranma cool off. Cox can be a pain, but he's a good guy." Sunny just patted their hands and turned back to Ranma. "Ranma, you've got to calm down. I know that you wouldn't hurt me on purpose, but you need to watch what you're doing. I almost fell."  
  
Ranma turned scarlet. He didn't understand what was happening to him. He coudn't seem to keep control of his feelings like he should. He knew that he wasn't the calmest person on earth, but he usually had good reason to loose his temper. This was just out of control and he didn't like it one bit. But he was a man and would act like one.  
  
"Look! I don't understand what's happenin' ta me. I don't usually act like this. I told Steven earlier that I was brought up ta act like a man, be polite to my elders and not ta pick on girls. I'm not doin' to good so far. Sunny, I'm really sorry! Are you alright?" Ranma turned to Sunny and smiled hesitantly. "Please don't grab me without warnin' It's not a good idea. I'm gettn' so I hate ta be touched. OK?"  
  
Mr Cox looked relieved. He really didn't want to have to deal with a boy called Wild Horse. Especially in a temper. His bio on the boy was unbelievable, but he was beginning to wonder if it wasn't as exagerated as he had thought.  
  
"Please, everybody, sit down. Sunny if you are sure you're alright I'll start again." At Sunny's nod he 'eye-balled' everyone else into a seat. "We are a group of select individuals who have been chosen by fate, karma, destiny, or what ever you want to call it to defend earth from what we call the Shadows. Of course they aren't really shadows. Most of what we do is control magic and magic users. Some from other dimensions. Magical objects are either natural or man (although I use that turm loosly) made. Natural magical objects range from crystals to the Jusyenko Springs. Man-made items can be anything. Rings,bracelets, swords, orbs, anything. Even slave collars" Everyone flinched.  
  
"We know very little about the other dimensions. We just deal with their effect on earth as best we can. I believe that the Shadow Slavers didn't want you specifically. You were just unfortunate enough to get caught by surprise. You were lucky. They only had you for two days. Think what they could have done with more time."  
  
Ranma digested the flood of information while Mr. Cox rambled on about dimensional shifts and a bunch of other stuff Ranma didn't understand. "Hey! Go back a bunch. You said they only had me for two days? Not by my count. It was at least a month. I was moved twice. The last bunch only had me for three days, but they weren't the worst. I think they were the end of the line. Point of final sale I think they said. The training place was.........." Ranma shut up, pale and sweating. "I got nightmares. I never have nightmares." Ranma blurted out.   
  
Mr. Cox realized that Ranma was in worse shape than they had thought. A month in the hands of slavers was a month in hell. He didn't like to contemplate what had happened to this kid in a month. "Well. That is very bad news. I think that you were taken to a warp or loop in time. It repeats a very narrow period over and over. Effectively taking you out of the 'real' stream of time. It allowed for more time for training but they are tricky at best and can do some pretty strange things."   
  
Here, why don't you put your head down on your desk for a ......" Ranma jerked away from Mr. Cox's hand. "Don't touch me! I don't wanna' put my head down! I'll put you down! Stop touching me.! They were always touching me. Here, boy! Sit, boy! Stand, boy! An' when I wouldn't they punished me. All I had ta do was look at 'em and they turned that collar on. An' it went on and on and on. Sometimes for hours. I never knew how long it would be. And it was never the same. If I didn't sit when they told me sometimes the punishment would last for only a few minutes, other times, hours."  
  
Ranma picked up the desk he had knocked over and threw it through the window. Then he just stood and shook. Shuba slipped out and ran.  
  
Sunny and Danny slowly approached Ranma. " Ranma. Hey. Come on buddy. Its all right. Here. Let Sunny touch you. She'll help." Danny reached out and gently stroked Ranma's shoulder, ready to back off if Ranma took exception.  
  
"Oh. Ranma, I'm so sorry. I knew you needed more time. Steven would have you start this semester. He said you needed as normal a life as you could get. I would like to help you. Let me touch you. I 'm a healer. I can't heal your wounded spirit, you have to do that yourself, but I can help you stop shaking." Sunny reached out to Ranma.   
  
Ranma looked at Sunny and Danny as if he had never seen them before. "You still want to help me? I almost hurt you! Akane woulda' knocked me inta next week. I can't seem ta stop shakin'. I feel like a fool. This isn't me! I don't act like this! I can't seem to get a grip on myself. I'm creeping' 'n crawling' around and then I go off like a....... I don't know what. I'm so fucked up I could bust. And as for a normal life. What the hell is that?"  
  
Ranma gritted his teeth and allowed Sunny to put her arms around his shaking body. It felt good, like no one could reach him inside of the bubble of golden warmth she radiated.  
  
Shuba burst into Steven's office. "You better come quick. Ranma's off the wall. He really lost it. I don't know how you could have decided that he was safe. He ............." Shuba realized that he was talking to an empty room. Steven could really move quick for such a big guy.  
  
"Damnit, Dorrie come on. I thought you said he wasn't a head case. He's tearing up the classroom." Steven slid around a corner in time to see a desk crash through the window. "He's not a head case. I would have known. We pushed every button he's got and he didn't do a thing. He reacted just as he should have." Dorie took off after Steven.  
  
They both burst into the classroom just in time to see Sunny hug Ranma and begin healing.   
  
After several quiet minutes Ranma pulled gently away from Sunny and sat down in the middle of the floor. His shoulders drooped and he let his head hang, bangs hiding his eyes. "I'll get my.......Well, I don't have any things to get. So I guess I'll just get out as soon as you show me the way."  
  
"Nuh-uh! Don't think so! You think that we'll just toss you away because you're having a hard time? I thought you liked it here." Steven slashed his hand through the air, shaking his head. "We missjudged the extent of the damage they did you. That's our fault. I'm not letting you off Scot free. but I know there's a reason for this. I should have talked to you myself but I have been a little busy. My fault. I should have made more time for you. We need to have a private talk. Come on let's go to my office and have some tea."  
  
Steven gave Ranma a cup of chamomile tea and waited.  
  
Ranma sipped the tea and thought. Finally he put the empty cup down. "What now? I really screwed up this time." Ramna mumbled, "I don't know what is wrong with me. I can't seem to find my center."  
  
Steven handed Ranma a folder. "This is every thing that we have been able to find out about you. I'd like you to read it and tell me how much of it is accurate. Our contact in Nerima is new to the network and I'm afraid she tends to exaggerate just a little."  
  
Ranma took his time and read every word. Steven didn't stare at him, in fact he went so far as to do other work while he waited.  
  
"Steven! I know exactly how you got most of this information. I hope Nabiki didn't put the screws to you too hard. She doesn't exaggerate at all. In fact I think that she may have left out a few things." Ranma blinked as Steven choked on a sip of tea. "You ok? You're supposeta drink it not breath it."  
  
Steven coughed, wheezed and finally got his breath back. " Gah! Ranma how did you know the name of our informant in Nerima? It's not in the report."  
  
"Well, the only one who knew some a' this stuff had ta be a member a' my family or a really close friend. Nabiki has an information service in Nerima. All tha gossip not fit ta print. She knows or can find out whatever you want ta know........ for a price! So, if it ain't Nabiki I'd like ta know who it is."  
  
"OK. You really have,.... what?......three fiancees. And some of this training has got to be child abuse. Don't have a cow. I'm entitled to my opinion. You've got a big punishment coming and you don't need to make it worse." Ranma paled and looked down. "Hey! We've been through the punishment lecture. So stop flinching!"  
  
Ranma doubled up in his chair as if he had been punched in the gut. "I can't! I can't! You don't know what they did ta me. I was there for a month and all they did was hurt me. They made me fight for their pleasure. When I refused they killed the guy right in front a' me. I can't seem ta find my center. All I could do was train ta fight and I hated it. I've never hated training before. It's always been fun. My life has always been crazy but now it's completely outa my control. I hate it ! I just want it all ta stop. I wanna have ........I don't know what I want. I useta know but now I just feel lost. I'm so angry all the time. I don't get really angry that often, but now I feel like I'm on the edge a' goin' postal. I don't wanna' hurt someone by accident. I just want it all to go away."  
  
Steven clenched his teeth. "OK, Kiddo. I'll fess up if you will. I'll even start. You tell anyone outside of this room what I'm going to tell you and I'll be REALLY disappointed.  
  
Steven drew a deep breath. "I was born a slave. My family were all slaves. The stable I was born into was one of the most respected gladiatorial stables in ......well.....a different dimention than this one. I was taught from earliest childhood to be manly and strong. To fight any enemy to the death. My first kill was my older brother. He stole food from my bowl and I killed him before I even knew who he was. I got extra rations the next day and started training to enter the arena within the next month. I was fifteen. I'd give you some more details but you'd just throw up. Most people do. So when I tell you I know what you are going through I'm not just polishing my sparkling personality."  
  
"The things that they did to you were done to do exactly what they have. To confuse you and keep you off-center. It makes it easier to break a mans spirit. To crush his pride and sully his honor makes a better slave. Quite frankly I can't see you as the cowed type. I pushed every button you have and you didn't go off. I was looking for wild chi. It's what Wendy has. She can't get control of her energies. They control her and go wild. You have control of your energies. But you have lost control of your emotions. You need time to train right and meditate. You also need human contact. Contact that isn't painful or puts demands on you. And you are going to get it."  
  
"As to all your fiancees and some of this other shit. We'll take care of it for you. Which one of your fiancees if any are you in love with? What was that? I can't hear you"  
  
"Akane! Akane! I love Akane!" Ranma nearly shouted it. "Hey!! I said it. I really said it!" Ranma couldn't believe it. He'd really said it out loud. He felt funny. " I never said it out loud before. I always felt silly. It's not manly to have emotions n stuff. Pop's always tellin' me stuff like that. Sometimes I wonder if he knows what he's talking about or if he's just blowin' smoke."  
  
Steven ground his teeth. He would like to get his hands on Saotome Sr. and have a little talk with him. A talk involving a pointed object. "Look, Kiddo, I'm going to give you some advice that no one gave me. It don't make a bit of difference what everyone else thinks is manly. It's what you think is manly that counts. The Samurai are a good example. The samurai trained extensively in swordsmanship, archery, horsemanship, flower arranging, painting and haiku, they were expected to know how to play Go, Shogi and at least one instrument. Call a samurai unmanly and he'd hand you your head in a basket. You got to make up your mind what you think of as manly or unmanly and act accordingly."  
  
Ranma looked blank for amoment, then, "Flower.......painting.......Huh? I never heard any a' that stuff. Pop's always goin' on about bein' the best martial artist and bein' manly and stuff like that." Ranma decided to take a big chance. "Look I need ta go away. Be by myself for a while. I'd like ta do a bunch a' meditating; center myself. I'm outa' control and I'm not used ta that. Everythng I've ever trained in demands control. I need ta decide what I want ta be." Ranma held up his hand, "I told you I want ta be a bodyguard. Help people. I still wannna but I'm no good to myself or anybody else if I don't get myself together. Do something with all this anger and fear and everything I got banging around inside. I need a week ta myself. I know it'll put me behind in school but I'm so far behind as it is that I don't see how another week can make or break me. What do ya say?"  
  
Steven nodded, "It took me a lot longer to get myself in some kind of civilized condition. but I had a lifetime to get over you've got a month. I won't insult you by saying only because any time you spend on a chain is forever. We've got some cottages up in the hills. I'll have you shown to one. We'll send you meals, check up on you and in general make it as easy as possible for you to do what you need to. Don't force it Take as much time as you need. Don't feel like you have to be the 'perfect' warrior, stuff like this takes time. As soon as you are ready we can find someone you trust to talk to." Ranma made a face. "No faces it really helps I still have a 'friend' I talk to."  
  
Ranma looked at Steven out of the corner of his eye. "Ask! Don't hold it in, you'll bust something."   
  
"What did you hate the worst!" Steven didn't even try to pretend he didn't understend. "That's a difficult thing. I hated having to kill men I didn't even know. Men who hadn't done anything to me. But what i really hated the worst was being dirty all the time. sounds strainge but sometimes it's the little things that really get to you."   
  
"I hated trying to eat with my hands chained behind my back.They'd just throw the food on the floor. They called me dog." Ranma sighed. "You said I had a punishment coming? Let's get it over with."  
  
"This time there isn't any punishment. I just said that to get you to let loose. You need to accept your feelings and deal with them. You have been taught that you are supposed to be 'brave' and not show emotions. That's not good . You need to be in control of emotions. Especially anger. But crushing them down only leaves them to fester and show up in ways that aren't acceptable. "  
  
Ranma shook his head. "I threw a desk through a window."   
  
"I threw a jeep through a building. I destroyed the entire old barracks building. and did a few other things. I spent about two years trying not to slug every one who touched me unexpectedly. Want to keep up the comparisons? I'm sure I've got you beat on all counts. You're stronger that I am and you'll beat this. Not easily. maybe not quickly but you will. You just need time and peace. Plus, that contact in Nerima said plainly that you are capable of blasting the side out of a mountain. You have done very little damage compared to what you could. I think that shows a massive amount of self control. Go! Contemplate whatever it is you need to. We'll take care of things so you can do what you need."  
  
"I need to write to Akane. Now that I know that I'm staying for sure. She's gonna kill me when she gets her hands on me. She's probably worried as all get out. Kuno was right about her, she's probably having fits. She always worries about me. Use ta make me feel embarrassed. But I think now that it's kinda nice. " Ranma looked Steven in the eye. "I need to get away from everyone for a while. Where's that cottage." 


	7. chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT  
  
Steven gave Ranma's letters to Doris. " I think he has handled his business   
  
himself. It took him most of an hour to write about six lines to Akane. I hope she doesn't reject him. It would probably set him back more than a little. He's really hurting. I want to get Saotome. How could a man sell his own son. But then after reading this report on him. I think the ass-hole is just stupid. Has no more right to raise a kid that a cat does. We'll just have to see how Ranma does after he gets back. I hope that letting him go off alone is the right thing to do. He seems to need time to himself. I want him watched discretely, at all times. I don't want him to harm himself somehow. Well, you'd better get going. You know what you're going to do?"  
  
Doris smiled, "Oh, yesssss! I know exactly what I'm going to do." Doris picked up a briefcase, straightened her conservative business suit and walked to the door. "Boss, you don't have to worry about a thing!"  
  
Steven shivered, "Why don't I find that to be reassuring?"  
  
Xian Po saw the new customer walk in. {Something not right here} "Welcome, I show you table?"  
  
Doris replied in perfect amazonian Chinese. "No I thank you. I am here on business. I need to speak to Elder Kou Long. Please show me to her."  
  
Kou Long was sitting at her desk in the back, reading a book on herbs. Doris put a few papers in front of her. "I see that you have been looking for a boy. A special boy. I have information about his whereabouts."   
  
"How much do you want? I won't be cheated you know. If Nabiki doesn't know where he is by now........"  
  
Doris tossed a coin onto the desk. "He's in the Shadows now. Read the papers I gave you. Then we'll talk more. I'll wait" Xian Po brought tea so she could over hear what was being said.  
  
"Stupid girl! Go away! Private conversation!" Kou Long grunted as she shifted around so that she could watch the door and read at the same time. "How did that stupid boy get himself involved in Shadow play. I won't allow it! He is going to marry with Xian Po; not spend the rest of his life running around the dimensions fighting demons and oni and who knows what else." Cho Long picked up the top paper and glanced at it.   
  
After reading a description of Ranma, the word seller jumped out at her. SELLER: Genma Saotome.   
  
"I will kill him. I will gut him like a fish!" Kou Long took a deep breath and then let it out very slowly.   
  
"Xian Po, girl, where are you? Come here!"   
  
"Yes grandmother. Do you need me." Xian Po felt nervous. this had something to do with Ranma. She had heard enough to know that, but what had made her grandmother look so furious.  
  
"Stupid Genma has sold Ranma to be a chain child! Your engagement is off! No amazon can marry a chain child........or a freed man. We will pack up and go back to china tonight."  
  
"NO!!!! I want to marry Ranma! He is not like amazon men. He is ..........." Xian Po started to cry. "I don't like amazon men! They don't have the backbone of a jelly fish! They smile and nod and agree with everything I say. Moo Sou should be called mouse! They're all like that! Ranma, he fights me and tells me I'm stupid. and stands up to you. " Xian Po ran out.   
  
"Well, I always wondered why she clung to Ranma When he doesn't love her and she knows it. Don't worry Miss. What did you say your name is? I'll see to it that the girl doesn't bother Ranma anymore." Kou Long shook her head. "Here's your ID back." She picked the coin up and handed it to Doris. "If you don't mind me asking? What's a high ranking operative doing handling stuff like this?"  
  
Doris gave Kou Long a nasty smile. "Just want to make sure that one of our top new operatives isn't annoyed by 'old business'. And I hope that it is old." Doris stood up and walked to the door. "Oh! I would appreciate it if the contents of that file got around to the right people. You know who I mean I think"  
  
to Ukyo Kuonji  
  
Ucchan: I'm really sorry to write this. I don't love you I really like you a lot but that all there is. I hate hurting you and have been a real coward trying to avoid it. I probably hurt you more by not being honest with you from the start.  
  
Pop really screwed you over but that was him not me . I don't understand how he can blame me for his bad decisions but he always does.   
  
I'm not going to be his goat any more. he can just be a man and take the blame for his own mistakes. After all he sold me so now he has no claim on me what so ever. Please forgive me for being a jerk.  
  
Your Ex-fiancee Ranma  
  
Ukyo read the letter twice. "Well, Ranma Honey. I'm glad you finally decided to make up your mind. I'd rather you chose me, but at least you got off the fence. Hay, Konatsu, noon rush is going to start any minute."  
  
Konatsu looked at Ukyo. She had gotten a letter that made her cry. but now she seemed to have gotten over it. He was glad. If Saotome stayed away long enough maybe he had a chance.  
  
Akane turned the letter over in her hand. "Nabiki, How did you get this? Where is Ranma? Why doesn't he come back? Where did Genma go? Tell me or I'll get you good. This is no time to be .............mmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuufffffffffff" Nabiki put her hand over her sisters mouth. "Just read the damn letter. Then I'll explain anything that he doesn't."  
  
Dear Akane:  
  
Sit down before you unfold the rest of this letter, and don't be mad at Nabiki.   
  
That summer camp that pop took me to was a slaver agency. Chain Child is another word for slave. Yup. Pop sold me. I hope he got a good price because it cost him a son.  
  
I love you. Yes I said it. and I'll keep saying it until you believe me. Ask Nabiki anything else you need to know.   
  
I love you Ranma  
  
Akane's scream shattered every window in the house. "EEEEEEEEEEKKKKK!!! I'll kill him!! Nabiki! You find that son-of-a GGGGAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I'll pay you whatever you want. Just you find him so I can pound him into the ground." Akane stood up, panting. "No, Little Sister, I'm not going to let you do something that could ruin the rest of your life. He's not worth it. He doesn't deserve any honorable action on the part of any of us. Let the police have him. He'll have plenty of time to repent his foolishness in jail. It's worse than anything for him, Don't you think.?" Nabiki smirked at Akane "Plus there is a nice reward for information on the where abouts of anyone involved in the slave trade. I'll even split it with you"  
  
Akane threw up her hands, Nabiki was right. That didn't mean that she was going to forget. If she ever saw Gemna Saotome he'd regret it. "OK Big Sis. I'll take you up on that but don't ever say that name in this house again. No one is to ever say Ranma's fathers name in my hearing."   
  
Suddenly her knees went weak. She sat down hard. Nabiki, startled, took her hand and touched her cheek. You strain something? That was quite a scream. I'm glad no one else was home.......What? I didn't hear you"   
  
"He said he loves me. Right here in the letter he wrote it, twice. And he said he'd keep saying it until I believed him. Oh, just you wait Ill get him! He's such a jerk! Why didn't he tell me sooner. I wouldn't have been such a bitch to him." Akane started to cry. Nabiki just hugged her and let her go. They had all been so worried. The relief made her cry too.  
  
Flashback to two days after Genma Sold Ranma  
  
Genma Saotome hid in the alley behind the Chain Child agency. What had he done? All he wanted was to make Ranma a better Martial artist. And he had to admit the money had looked pretty good too. But this was all wrong. Nodoka was going to make him commit Sepuku. He didn't want to die. Soun, Nabiki, Well, actually every one in Nerima who knew Ranma would want his head on a pike. "I'm a dead man. Someone is going to have a panda skin rug. I have to get out of town. Forever. " Genma just started running. Away. Not anywhere just away.  
  
Letter to Nodoka Saotome  
  
Dear Mom:  
  
When I was six years old you made Pop sigh an oath. If I didn't turn out to be a man among men, he and I would both cut our belly. Well, you can forget it. I'm not going to honor an oath that was signed on my behalf before I even understood what it was about. I think that I'm manly and that is the only opinion that counts.   
  
I have no father. The man who was my father sold me. So now I own myself. Any attempt to damage my property will be dealt with accordingly. I'm sorry if I come off arrogant. but that's because I am. I was never allowed to play with other kids so I have the social skills of a junk yard dog. Deal with it!  
  
Your emancipated minor son Ranma  
  
PS It's been ten years since I've seen you in case you lost track.  
  
Doris smiled with real enjoyment. She was a holy bitch when she wanted to be. And she wanted to be right now. Saotome Sr. was in deep shit. She had read {Shame on you girl} Ranma's letters. She was glad that she hadn't had to add any thing to any of them. She really hated messing with letters like those. She had also dropped another file with Nabiki. they would read it later. She just hoped Soun understood what had happened. He was untrustworthy, because he couldn't bring himself to care since his wife died.   
  
The repercussions of this were going shake Nerima to its foundations. Good thing too. Because it was the center of a lot of activity and would be for the foreseeable future. Ranma was going to come home to a mess and it would be his responsibility to keep it contained. She was glad she didn't have the job. Waste his talents as a body guard? "My ass!"  
  
"Yay! Now for something fun. If I can find the little shit. How can his sense of direction be that bad. Genetic? Well you might know!" Doris read the note Ranma had written Steven again. 'please find a boy by the name of Ryouga Hibiki, also known as the lost boy, or P-chan. If you can't find him as a human find a small black piglet wearing a bandanna. Pour hot water on him, Not too hot though. Give him a GPS. He needs it worse than anything. Thank You.'  
  
Doris turned around and cought sight of a small black piglet sitting dejectedly beside a large pack and some clothes. {It's Nermia! Thank you!} Doris walked over to him and picked him up in one arm. As she snagged his pack he squealed indignantly. "Oh shut up P-chan I can't manage my briefcase, you and your pack if you keep wiggling." Doris gave him a squeeze.   
  
After dumping hot water on him and turning her back so he could get dressed Doris handed Ryouga the object she had picked up at the compound armory. Here, It's a GPS. You know what that is don't you? No? Well, Its a Global Positioning System. It tells you where you are and helps you get where you want to go. I'll show you how it works and give you the operating manual."  
  
Ryouga looked at the GPS. Then he burst into tears. After he got control of himself he made Doris show him how it worked three times and tried it himself until he was positive he had it exactly right. "This is going to save my sanity. You don't know how hellish my life has been. I can't go anywhere. I need a guide worse than a blind man. To whom do I owe this wonder. Please tell me your name."  
  
"AW! Honey, You don't owe this to me. I'm just the messenger. Ranma sent it to you. He told me to tell you the he doesn't hold any grudges against you and hopes that this will settle any you have against him. I guess being a slave has mellowed him some." Doris smiled slyly. That put the last nail in old Saotome's coffin or she missed her guess. "Why the shocked look. You didn't know that the old man sold him. Some kind of new training technique he thought up or something." Doris shrugged, "Well, I got to get back to the compound. Work to do and all thatl"  
  
Ryouga didn't scream or threaten. He just nodded once, as if he had made up his mind about something. "I'll thank you to stay a while. I would like to know everything you can tell me about this." He was so calm that Doris was a little disappointed. She had expected more reaction than this. Then she got a good look at the kid's eyes. {Yikes, one of the calm ones. All flash and fire when he's just annoyed but make him really angry and he calms down. And destroys everything in his path} "OK I'll tell you everything" 


	8. chapter 9

I realize that everyone who reviews is trying to help me. So I'm not trying to dis anyone  
  
This story is Alternate Universe, characters are OOC. I know that this upsets some of you. Please don't be mad at me I have a story to tell and I'm telling it as best I can with the information I have.   
  
My Hunny-bunny gave me the first box set because he knew I wanted it. So I'm really having a ball watching them. But I've got my story more or less mapped out. However if anyone tells me something useful I will certainly use it.  
  
Ranma is OC because he is trying to cope with the results of years of abuse by his father and a month of pure torture by slavers.  
  
I really respect all my reviewers and hope that you won't abandon me. Thanks for all your help. Past present and future.  
  
Enought with the yacking.  
  
Chapter Nine  
  
Ranma's Retreat  
  
The road to the cottage was impossible. He had been driven up in a four-wheel drive and even then it had been a rough drive. He thought the driver would be very surprised when he found out that Ranma could make the 2 hr drive in a 15 minutes run. Straight down the side of the mountain.  
  
Ranma looked around the cottage. It was built like any number of small primitive cottages; one room with a fire pit; outside jakes. But it had a beautiful view from the modern hot tub. And the tiny bathroom was well equipped. All in all, not bad.  
  
He liked the garden, it was a nice place for meditation. He intended to do a lot of that. he had always liked to meditate. Pop, of course said that it was for sissies. Well, the next time he called Ranma a sissy would be the last.  
  
Ranma sat seiza; hands lightly fisted on his thighs. It was late afternoon and he was still sitting. His body was still but his mind was busy. He listed every thing he needed to accomplish.  
  
1) Figure out what is wrong with my control. I'm never out of control like this. Think about what Steven said. Did the slavers screw up his head? {Oh! Yeah!}  
  
2) Compare Ranma and Ranko. List strengths and weaknesses of each Plan training to eliminate weaknesses.  
  
3) Catch up on school work. {I'm no dummy but I come off like one because I'm so far behind.}  
  
4) Rest! Take time out to do nothing.  
  
5) Meditate. Find center. {There's something here trying to get out. New technique? Maybe. }  
  
"Young Sir! Where are you?" Ranma flinched slightly.  
  
"Over here. Who is it?"  
  
The man walked around the side of the cottage carrying a large bento box. "I'm just the delivery man. Here! It's your supper. We'll bring you three meals a day."  
  
Ranma blinked bringing his attention back to the outside. "Nah! I don't wanna' be disturbed that often. If you bring me stuff I can cook my own meals. I'd prefer it that way."  
  
At the man's look Ranma snapped, "What?! Ya think I'm stupid. I'm not some helpless kid. I've been cookin' since I was 7. Besides if you really wanna get down ta basics. I'll just go catch my own."   
  
"OK We'll bring you some groceries tomorrow. Is there anything you especially like or dislike?" The old man just set the bento on the ground by Ranma. He'd been warned that Ranma was touchy and rude so he didn't let on that he wanted to smack the arrogant little prick.  
  
"If it's dead I can cook it. I'll eat anythin' that don't try ta eat me first and a few things that do. Just make sure there's plenty. I eat a lot." Ranma shrugged. He'd probably made the old man mad, but he'd been making progress. The interruption was unwelcome; a reminder of all the times Genma had interrupted him. That pissed him off, so he got rude.   
  
Ranma ate everything in the box and wished for more. He ate at least three times what any other person his size and age did. He'd wondered once if something was wrong with him, but a visit to Dr Tofu had reassured him.   
  
Tofu had just looked at him and said that he was surprised that he didn't eat more. His appetite was caused by intensive training and a high metabolism; which was one of that reason that he healed so quickly.  
  
After wondering vaguely if he could trap or catch something else to eat Ranma decided to go to bed. The futon he found in the storage closet was soft and comfortable, the quilt cozy. He spread them out near the fire pit; then busied himself with the fire. He was going to need a fire this high up a mountain.  
  
Ranma slowly opened his eyes. After a moment of disorientation he remembered where he was. "I'd really like ta wake up this way more often. I hate bein' dragged outa bed. I just like a few private minutes ta get ready for the day. Why do they wake me up like they do . A pot a' cold water or a kick in the ribs just ain't a good way ta great the day. AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!" Ranma yawned widely and threw the covers back. Life was beginning to look up. Breakfast would be cold water today but so what?  
  
"Hello!? You up? I brought you some breakfast and groceries." Assorted thumps and bumps told their own stories.  
  
Ranma ambled out onto the porch. "What'd ya bring me? I'm starvin'! Is it eggs?" Ranma latched onto the bento like it was his hope of heaven. His stomach was protesting the slimmness of supper loudly. "Growwwww!" "Shut up!"  
  
"Excuse me?" John eyed Ranma out of the corner of his eye."Was that your stomach or do you have a puppy in your pocket?"  
  
Ranma grinned sheepishly. "I'm hungry. Supper wasn't enough. I hope ya brought plenty a' groceries." Ranma tugged his pig-tail, he'd been rude last night and now he was embarrassed. "Look I'm sorry about last night. I was rude. I was meditatin' and I hate bein' interrupted."   
  
"Oh, Well. We were all told that you are a mite touchy right now. So there're no hard feelings. Just kinda take it easy. We'll try not to interrupt your meditations I know how important meditation can be. " John accepted the apology with out further comment. "Do you need anything else. I forgot to show you the Com unit. Here! Just press this button and it connects you with the command center. All you have to do is push this button to signal. Then you push this one to talk and let go of it to listen."  
  
Ranma gave the man a sour look but decided not to say anything. "Ok, Ok. I got it." {Go away! I know how an intercom works. Sheesh! He must think I'm an idiot!}  
  
John eyed the sullen kid and left before one of them said something rude, again.  
  
Ranma knew he should wait until after he worked out to eat, but years of eating when he could had given him a cast iron stomach so training on a full stomach rarely upset it. Besides no enemy was going to politely ask if you had eaten recently.  
  
Ranma explored the area spending the day learning the terrain and finding the best places to train. There was a valley about six miles up the mountain which looked like it had been bombed several times. It was perfect for practicing Mouko Takabisha.  
  
He found a field of stakes set up near the cottage. They looked fairly new, like they had been put up with in the last week or so.   
  
Ranma smiled a little. Steven had said that they would get him anything he needed and he was keeping his word. Ranma felt a little bad now he hadn't trusted any of his rescuers. {Out of the pan, into the fire} So when they had tested him he'd held back. What if they couldn't be trusted? He hadn't wanted to give away how strong he really was because it had given him an advantage if he needed to escape. Well he'd make it right when he went back.  
  
There was a outcropping on a cliff that was perfect for meditation. {Disturb me now, I dare you}It was 30 feet above the ground and 20 feet below the top of the cliff. He had watched mountain goat climb to it and followed him up.The foot holds were small but solid and he could jump from one to the other easily. The goat had more trouble than he did.  
  
Ranma looked at the suns shadow. {almost noon. I'll head back to the house and see what that old man brought me to eat. I hope there is something I can stur fry.}  
  
Ranma headed back to the cottage running lightly over the rocky ground. He was going to like the privacy and peace. He could already feel his body unwinding. He felt calm and light for the first time since Jushyenko.  
  
{Panda no Baka! Stupid Father! I don't know why I put up with him as long as I did. I guess I just didn't know any better. Living with the Tendos really opened my eyes. I spent so much time learning to be a man among men that I didn't learn how to be a person.}  
  
Ranma rummaged through the boxes and bags. {I need more than this! There's barely enough for three days. I'll call the command center} "Excuse me! Hey! Anyone there?"  
  
Ranma waited for someone to answer him.  
  
"Yes! Ranma? What can we do for you?" Ranma didn't recognize the voice. "My name is Supply Sergeant Samuals. I'm your contact. Anything you want; just ask, I'll get it for you"  
  
"Ummmm! I need more food. You sent me enough for about three days. I'd really like some beef . Oh, and tofu, eggs, more fruit and don't send any more broccoli. I don't like it. I also need a selection of weapons. A wakizashi, a tanto, chain dart, shurikin, throwing needles, a fan, short and long sticks and a naginata. I think that's all. Set up a place ta meet and I'll come an' get it. I don't want your driver havin' an accident on that goat path you call a road."  
  
"We'll have everything you want ready in about an hour. I'll have the driver bring it up. You won't be able to get here......."  
  
Ranma walked on the sergeant. "I said I'll come get it. I can be there in fifteen minutes. You tell me where ta meet ya!"  
  
Sergeant Samuals was old school. If the little snot said he could do it, Samuals would let him try. Better to let an arrogant kid like that prove himself wrong than to try to convince him by talking him to death.  
  
Twenty minutes later Samuals was watching Ranma as he sifted through the pack basket. "Who packed this thing? All tha heavy stuff is on top. Heavy stuff goes on the bottom. I'll have to repack the whole thing before I leave." Ranma was disgusted. Who ever had packed the basket didn't know squat.  
  
Samuals eyed a young private. "Private, come here. Didn't I tell you to put the weapons in first then the lighter groceries. Repack that basket now!" The private came to attention and saluted "Sir, Yes Sir. I'm sorry, sir. We didn't expect........."  
  
Samuals interrupted, "Pack! Don't talk! I don't want excuses."  
  
Ranma dumped everything out of the basket while the Sergeant was talking {Kami save me! That jack-ass has no more business packing loads than a monkey} "I'll do it myself. I know exactly how I like it balanced. Look here! First tha small heavy stuff in tha bottom, then long stuff on one side so you don't hit your head on it. Then put in medium weight stuff an' so on."   
  
"Look kid, I know how to pack a load. I just didn't think you would be here so soon so I just dumped stuff in as I picked it up. I was going to repack but you got here before I could." The private gave Ranma a condescending look. "Its not as if you can really carry all that stuff up the side of a mountain anyway. I'll...."  
  
"Fuck ya! I can carry twice the weight without even feelin' it. An' I couldn't care less if it's up the side of a mountain. You don't know dick. And my name is Ranma ........... RAN.......MA...... not kid, kiddo, or any other a' those nauseatin' names you come up with. All that is is a bunch a' old bastards trying ta put us in our place. Well, I know where my place is and I'll put myself there. Thank you very much." Ranma turned to the pack and shortened the straps.  
  
Heaving the pack on his back he took off at a dead run. Straight up the side of the mountain ignoring the road completely.  
  
"Well! I guess he told us! Did you see that?! I mean I know you saw that but there had to be two hundred pounds of sundries there. And he picked it up like it was nothing and ran up that , I mean its a forty five degree slope for gods sake." The private stopped gibbering and just stared as Ranma disappeared over the crest of the hill.  
  
Sergeant Samuels shook his head. "My file says that he is egotistical and arrogant. I guess he had us fooled. He just knows what he can and can't do and hasn't learned how to explain himself with out coming off like a braggart. I think we're going to have our hands full with him. He's about as social as a snake-eater." Samuels walked off mumbling.  
  



	9. Chapter 10

They fussed at me. I forgot the Disclamer. Like I own anything in the Ranma verse. I do not own Ranma. He belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, I just snitched him for a while. I make no profit from this. Please don't sue me. All you'll get is a junk yard hog.  
  
This chapter is dedicated to dogbertcarroll Thank you so much.  
  
Chapter Ten: Training  
  
"Mornin', breakfast." Ramna mumbeled his way out of bed through the shower and into the main room again. "Let's see. Eggs, bacon, tea. and no one ta try stealin' my food before I can get it inta my mouth. Am I dead? Is this heaven? No, just a good place ta be for now. No one attackin' me, no fiancees ta deal with. All I need ta do is train and loaf. 'Ray for me!" Ranma ate his breakfast slowely savoring the taste for a change. {I wonder why I haven't hurt someone for snatching food from me. I'm always hungry so it dosn't make sense. Every one is always tellin' me I don't have any patience. Maybe it's just that it has always been strained to the breakin' point. Idiots! What do "they" know anyway.}  
  
Ranma started his routiene by running around the perimiter of the Compound. there was a nice path all the way around just inside the fence. {Wonder how far it is around? Who cares. I'll just run til I'm tired."}  
  
When he got near the field of stakes he swerved off to do kata on top of them. He also worked out with the chain dart until he was sure he remembered how to use it without hurting himself. He threw the shurikin and darts.   
  
{Lunch. I deserve it. That was a good start. I need ta increase my indurance and flexability.} Ranma knew that if he didn't give himself an honest evaluation he was going to fail at a critical moment. A moment when failure ment disaster. {Tell me I'm not responsible. Try havin' my life for a while. I've always been responsible. For myself and Pop. Like he's got a responsible bone in his body. I get myself into all kinds of messes tryin' ta be the responsible one. I'm supposed ta be the kid for Kami's sake.}  
  
After lunch Ramna switched to Ranko and started all over again.  
  
"Excuse me, Mister. Is there any reason I can't swin in this lake." Ranko squatted in front of the fisherman, blinking as the man flinched. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."  
  
The man stared for a moment. It wasn't every day a gorgeous red headed goddess appeared in front of him. "Un..... Sorry, didn't mean to stare. I don't see any reason you couldn't swim if you want to . It's cold and deep but if you stay close to the shore it's not too bad."  
  
Ranko stood up. "Thanks." She dove off the dock and started across the lake.   
  
"Hey!! You don't want to do that. Come back here." Corporal Jenks was one of the men Steven had sent to keep an eye on Ranma. "It's five miles from here to the other side. You'll drown."  
  
Ranko dog paddeled for a moment. "Shit! Is that all? I won't even get a good start. I'll have to do laps." At Corporal Jenks face Ranko sneared. "Don't get your shorts in a bunch. I can swin to China"  
  
Jenks got on the radio. "He....she is swimming across the lake. You'd better send up a rescue chopper. She's going to get about half way across. It's too cold to swim in."   
  
{I'll do ten laps. That ought to build up some endurance} Ranko switched to Ranma after the first ten laps and did ten more. He loved the feel of the cold water against his skin. It was one of the things he had really missed. Being able to swim witout turning into Ranko.  
  
Control sent the chopper, but when they saw Ranma he was on the return leg and making about 5 Knots. (about six land miles an hour)  
  
The rescue diver eyed Ranma. "I thought you said it was a girl. That's a man if I ever saw one. He's not in any distress that I can see. Head back."  
  
After compleating his training Ranma returned to the cottage. {Home at last. I need ta sit and figure out what I'm going to do.}  
  
Ranma trained for a week. He had decided that he needed to work on flexabllity as Ranma. He was doing well with weapons however. His sword work was improving quickly and he now could throw anything and hit his target.  
  
As Ranko he wasn't far behind either. She did a lot of running and swimming. She needed endurance and strength. Handling the naginata was improving upper body strength and climbing the cliff to meditate was getting her legs in shape too. The fan was a real fooler. It looked like an ordinary paper fan but the ribs were steel and as Ranko it could fool an opponent in to making a disastrous mistake.  
  
{All in all I think I'm getting where I want to be. I need to get some more yoga lessons and I want my own sword. Meditation is really helping me center. I feel like I'm getting back in control again} Ranma sat in the hot tub lettig the water soak away his aches and watching the sun go down.   
  
Ranko missed a punch. "Ow! Damn it! That hurt!" Ranko took off her necklace and touched it to his wrist. Switching was getting easier and easier.  
  
Ranma flexed his hand carefully. "Damn it, I think it's broken. Shit!"  
  
Ranma knew he was being watched, he'd seen the flickers of reflection off what he assumed was glass and he'd found what he thought was the main observation post. Now he headed for the tower.  
  
Oran was watching Ranma through a telescope. He felt strange watching someone who knew that they were being watched. Ranma had even waived at him once  
  
"Yow! What the hell? Where did you come from?"   
  
Ranma landed lightly on the railing of the tower, right in front of Oran. They were 30 feet up but Ranma had dropped down.  
  
Uuuummm, I jumped? Look, I'm sorry I scared you. I got a little problem and I wondered if you could tell me where Sunny is. I don't feel like going all the way down to school if she's gone ta town or somthin'." Ranma extended his swollen, purpling hand to the man.  
  
"Oh! Geeze, what the hell happened to you." Oran looked at Ranma's hand and felt slightly sick.  
  
"AW! I feel really dumb. I got careless and missed a lick while I was trainin'. It's not the first time I've done somthin' like this and it won't be the last. Ya can't punch a rock without some accidents once in a while. Now where's Sunny?"  
  
Oran pressed the call button on his com unit. "This is Oran. Ranma has hurt himself. Please send a medic as soon as possible."   
  
"I don't want a medic! I want Sunny! No one else is gonna' touch me." Ranma got stubborn. He didn't trust completely yet and didn't want strangers touching him.  
  
Oran reached out to pat Ranma on the head. "Don't worry, boy, the medics are really good. They 'll have you fixed up in no time." But patting Ranma on the head or any where else was like trying to catch the wind in a net.   
  
Ranma moved his head just enough to avoid the pat. "I'm not a dog! If you don't tell me where Sunny is I'll go find her myself, but my hand really hurts and I'd rather not have ta run ta the school. All I want is for you to tell me if she's there. Shit! I'll ask myself."  
  
Ranma reached out and pushed the call button.  
  
"Hey! I don't want a medic! I wanna know if Sunny's at the school."  
  
"Ranma?! You hurt yourself? We'll send medics if you need them." Sergeant Samuels answered the second call himself. "What do you need?"   
  
" Damnit! I asked you if Sunny was at school! Why don't you people fuckin' listen?"  
  
"Sunny is at school. But if you have hurt yourself we need to have one of the real Doctors look at you. I'll arrange it!" Sergeant Samuels had a feeling that he was talking to himself.  
  
"He's gone! Took off running the minute you told him where Sunny is. I never saw anything like it!" Oran was still trying to believe what he'd just seen. Ranma had dropped from the railing to the ground thirty feel below and hit running. He was already out of sight.  
  
Ranma burst through the gate and headed across the quad. Sunny! Hey!! Sunny! Where are you?? Sunny!" Ranma stood outside the building and yelled. He didn't feel like running around even the small class building looking for her.  
  
"Ranma I'm so glad you decided to come back we missed you I want to tell you all about Kuno and all the other wonderful things that........"  
  
Ranma stuck his hand in Sunny's face. "I broke it. Fix it, will ya? It's really startin' ta hurt."  
  
Sunny eyed Ranma's hand. "Well, you really did it this time. You fighters are so careless of yourselves. You should take better care. I'm going to have to set that bone back in place before I heal it. You've dislocated one of the small bones of your hand."  
  
"Yeah! Right third metacarpal. Hurts like hell. Can't you hurry?" Ranma had tucked his hand into his left armpit trying to ease the pain.   
  
"Well, give me your hand back and I'll try to set it back in place. Then I can heal the strained tendons and bruising. But I can't do anything until the bone is back in place. Sit down and put your hand on your knee."   
  
Ranma did as he was told. Then he shut his eyes. "OK I know what you 're going to do. I'll shut my eyes so I won't dodge you. SON-OF-A-BITCH!!! " Ranma clenched his teeth. It hurt when Sunny forced the bone back into place by thumping it between his knee and her fist. "Sunny, that HURT!"  
  
"I know!! I know!! But what am I supposed to do. That's the only way to do it. If you would go to the infirmary I could have used a sedative and you wouldn't even know it was done."  
  
Ranma shook his head. "They wouldn't let you do it. They'd wish me off on some bored medic or sumthin' I don't trust anyone but you. I don't want anyone else touchin' me and I wouldn't take a sedative even if you gave it to me."  
  
Sunny took Ranma's hand in both of hers. "Well thanks for the compliment. I need a little more practice, but I've got permission to work on people with Mom's supervision. But I'm not going to wait for her while you suffer. I'll just get grounded and so what." Sunny's hands started to glow golden  
  
"Hey! Grounded?" Ranma tried to snatch his hand back. Sunny clung to it or rather it stuck to hers.  
  
"Ranma don't do that! You can't pull away when I'm healing you! It feels funny. Bad funny! Gimme!" Sunney pulled Ranmas hand back steadying herself against his shoulder.   
  
"I hope I have enough power to completly heal you. I haven't healed anyone since we converted your collar. It really took a lot out of me and Mom said that I'd be weak for a longtime.Why are you pulling away again I'm almost done" Sunny slumped against Ranma suddenly.  
  
"Shit! Stupid girl! Why didn't you tell me that you weren't better yet. You shoulden't be healing me. Damnit!" Ramna steadied Sunny letting her rest against his shoulder.  
  
"It's Ok I didn't complete the healing. I just did enought so it won't hurt. Mom can finish." Sunny rested her head against Ranmas shoulder and sighed. "You smell good."  
  
"Here! let me........."  
  
Ranma jumped straight up taking Sunny with him.  
  
"wha.....Where'd.........Shuba you scared the hell outa me. Don't sneak up on a guy like that." Ranma looked down from the branch of a large oak tree. The branch happened to be about fifteen feet up the tree, thick enough to hold two comfortably.   
  
Shuba sighed {Damn he's still as twitchey as they come} "Ranma look around. All that yelling! Everyone and his brother is standing around watching. Come down before you drop Sunny. Her mom would kill you."  
  
Ranma droped back to the ground holding Sunny gently. "As If!! I never drop someone." Ranma stuck his nose in the air. "I never dorp anything. 'Sepecially not a person. Sunny you can let go now we're on the ground."  
  
Sunny dropped her feet to the ground as Ranma tipped her up to standing. "Ranma how did you dispocate that specific bone. What were you punching. There isn't a punching bag up on the mountain."  
  
" I was breaking rocks and I got careless. Pop wouldn't even have let me stop training it's such a small injury. But I'm not traianing hurt any more; it's not a good idea. If you train with an injury it never heals quite right."  
  
Shuba and Sunny both made faces. "Well, I would just like to give your Pop a piece of my mind" Sunny humpfed crossing her arms over her chest.  
  
Shuba nodded and looked like he wanted to do more "I'd like to know where your dad got some of his ideas from."  
  
Ranma pulled a lock of Sunnys' green hair. "I'd like for you to give him a piece of your mind, he needs all the brains he can get. And, Shuba he gets his ideas from every crack-brained book he can find."  
  
Ranma jumped as he realized that he was surrounded by strangers, most of them men. He jumped over the heads of the crowd and ran.  
  
"Damnit, I hoped that he would stay. Well....... he's still really jumpy" Shuba looked around at the crowd. "Hey the shows' over. Go about your business. Damnit!"  
  
"Shuba I really wish that you'd go up the mountain and make Ranma come back down I don't think it's good for him to be training all alone in some of the worst conditions we have. that ..........." Sunny ran down and sighed. "Poor Ranma I hate his Pop."  
  
"Yeah, Unfortunatly so does he" Shuba shook his head "I just hope the old fool dosn't show up before Ranma works through this." 


	10. Chapter 11

I've gotten several requests for longer chapters. so I'm gonna use my word count and try to write longer chapters. (this request to someone who's been called Rachetjaw and Motormouth)  
  
Insert Disclainer here.  
  
Chapter 11: Board meeting  
  
Steven walked to the head of the table and sat down.  
  
"Well, People, lets get this show on the road. I have files on most of the young people we have been watching and a few that we didn't know excited."  
  
"I'd like to know how several talented young people could have slipped through our net. All in the area of a town called Nerima in Japan."   
  
"We can't afford this kind of mistake. It's too important."   
  
"I realise we're just a bunch of ex-fighters ourselves. So how the hell are we any better or different that these kids. We just moved up the food chain a step. We are now "The Powers" instead of a bunch of humps trying to keep the dimensional rifts shut and all the boogey men out".   
  
"There have been several incidences of slaving and there are a lot of magical objects floating around. All of them from other dimensions."   
  
"I realized that intel is vague, but you all know what we are dealing with. It's magic pure and simple. Explain that to most people. We just don't have the referents."   
  
"And it's hell when some cop asks who we are and we can't do anything but shrug."  
  
"We need a name. We can't just keep telling people I'm the guy who's going to fix it. So someone come up with a name that makes sense. Not a hash of letters like some cartoon spy."  
  
Steven looked around at the other people seated at the table. They were all friends and fellow Shadow Warriors. Every one of them had more experience in fighting Shadows than the beurocrats above them had in their little finger. But, they were all older and starting to slow down. That didn't mean that they couldn't still hold their own but this time around Steven had taken hold and made people who had influence realize that throwing their lives away wasn't going to cut it. They needed to find and train the new generation of Shadow Warriors while the older ones were capable of handing down experience earned with blood. {What the hell is the plural of Apocalypse?}  
  
"We've really got it bad this time around. There are several 'thin' spots where the barriers between the dimensions can be ruptured very easily. You know what that means. We've got three or four places where it's going to get hairy real soon."   
  
We've managed to convince the police in LA in America that it's real. They have taken their rift in hand themselves and assembled a team of good fighters. Lonny is there and training like a bandit. They seem to realize that it's serious. We'll give them any help; loan experts on whatever, as needed but I don't see any real need to take over. As if we could if they wouldn't cooperate.  
  
"Anybody heard anything that they haven't heard a thousand times before?'"   
  
At head shakes from the others at the table he picked up another file. "I really wish the boffins would come up with some answers. I feel like I'm in a sci-fi movie. Dimentions, Shadows, it's all shit but we don't know jack so we name it what we name it. I don't care if we call it cannoli as long as we all call it the same thing." Steven tossed the file back on the table.  
  
"At least this time around we're organized." At a snort from a small, black haired man he grinned. 'Well we're better organized than when I got dragged into this mess. That bunch of trainers I had barely qualified as cannon fodder. They kept trying to train a gladiator to kill. Stupid isn't the word. I only survived my first mission because I'm too mean to die. And I know that you all had similar experiences. So I'd like to avoid the same disasters with these kids. We need to train them to think on their feet and not to be bound by rules You know things are never as they 'should' be. Any one who expectes things to work a certain way is dead and dosn't know it."  
  
"Now on to important things We've got some really good people. They aren't any of them over twenty so we've got some problems with that. How many cops are going to take advice from a snot nosed brat? I know of zero. So we've got to impress that hell out of them first off. Give me some ideas."  
  
"Second, out of all the best ones we've found we have one who is mental. The kid has to take pills every day or he isn't functional. That's not really going to be much of a problem because after he got level or what ever they call it he really came down to earth with a bang. He's been in intensive therapy and really making progress. Kuno Tatiwaki may be a real asset, well just have to see.  
  
Then there is one we can't even find. Name of ....mmmmmmmmmmm.......Hibiki Ryouga, The Lost Boy, Wandering Child.......bunch of other names. Where do these kids get these names?"  
  
"I don't know Sparticus, Sword Breaker, Last Standing. Haven't a clue." The woman sitting beside Steven smirked at him knowingly.  
  
"Shut up, you pain in the ass woman, Ice Maid, Poison Princess" Steven looked over the top of the file he was holding.   
  
"Couch for you, Manly." The woman grinned at Steven. She knew that they were all stressed and needed some comic relief.  
  
Every one at the table laughed. They had all worked together for years and knew each other like siblings.  
  
"Well, let's get on with this. We need to find the Hibiki kid. "  
  
"And then there's Ranma Saotome, I'm not even going to bother with being nice. He's messed up real bad. I have an idea of what they did to him and its going to take some time for him to get over it. He doesn't want to be touched, he doesn't really trust us and he's the best fighter we're going to get. I'd like to kill Saotome SR slowly. He spent all Ranma's life trying to make him a Man among Men. And some of the training he put that kid through would make my old trainers run screaming."   
  
"One, there's this Neko-Kun, that really has me worried. He admits to being afraid of cats but there is more to it than that or I miss my guess. We'll have to wait on that. Then there's the rest of this mess."  
  
"He wants to be alone to get his head together and we're allowing that, but we can't wait forever; so I'm giving him another two to three weeks then we're going to have to bring him down. I'm thinking that he has the strongest intellect and force of will since Iron Will herself. He'll be fine if we have the time."  
  
"Boss? What if we don't have the time?" The speaker was a big man and for Steven to think of him as big (Steven was 6'4" and in proportion.) He was huge, muscular and hard. But at pushing 40 he was past his prime as a fighter. He didn't heal as quicky as they needed him to. But he was a hell of a teacher."  
  
"Then we're going to have to throw him in to sink or swim. I think once he relizes what we need him for he'll be good enough. We'll just have to be careful of touching him unexpectedly. But how many of us have the same problem. I don't think it's going to be something we can't deal with."  
  
"We've got to get a team up and running in the next 18 months. Thats when the next rift is going to manifest. Don't these guys talk pretty? In other words that's when the shit hits the fan for some poor area we can't even find yet."   
  
"They will be dealing with every thing half a dozen dimensions, planes, alternate universes or whatever screwy name some idiot bureaucrat can come up with......... All kinds of shit will be coming through. Demons and monsters and bogey men and things that go bump in the night. You all know more about it than the scientists who are trying to explain it. We've been in it up to our asses and we can't explain it."  
  
"As long as we can talk about it and deal with it that's all that counts. We clean up the mess and try to keep civilians out of it as much as possible."  
  
"Steven, I know that you hate all this explain it stuff, but one of the reasons we need to explain it is so we can get it under control. Wouldn't it be nice if we could make the rifts show up where we wanted them? Not that I really want them at all but I don't think it's possible to stop them. The universe is in flux and entropy is the law of nature.........OK OK I'll shut up. You ignorant savage, you" The shy black haired british man grinned. Steven was good at what he did and ignored as best he could things he didn't understand. That was one of the things that made him so good at his job.   
  
"So, what we need is more intel. The only way we are going to get it is by fighting this and using all the Tech we have to gather data and analyze it. That is where I and all my people come in. We deal with the science and you deal with the threat."  
  
"Ok ,Usher, I know I pop off at the mouth. But it is just so damn frustrating. Why can't we control this? Where do all these grizzlies come from? Why can't we find these kids in time to train them better before we have to throw them to the wolves? Damnit, I wish we weren't getting so old .We could just do it ourselves and save these kids a life like ours. Shit!"   
  
Everyone around the table felt the same, you could tell by their faces. "Hey! Sword Breaker, time passes and we all get older. I know how you feel. But the new generation has to have it's time. How will they become what they can be if we protect them from every little bump and bruise. We can hellp them by training them and see that they arn't thrown to the wolves without a few teeth of their own. You saved quite a few of them by setting up the school."  
  
" Instead of working us old ones til we get ourselvs killed you've comvinced some preaty important people to let us retire with honor so we can give these kids the benifit of knoweledge earned in blood. I just hope they're smart enough to listen."  
  
Steven made a face. "Some will; some won't. But if we can keep them from getting killed on the first mission we've got it made That was the other reason I yelled so loud about letting us get new blood before all us old ones are too old to fight or dead. We go on the first mission with them; as backup so if they really jump out of the pan we're there to save their bacon."  
  
Everyone groaned. "Steven I've heard of mixed metaphors before but that one is hash!"  
  
Steven grinned. "Anyone have anything worthwhile to say?"  
  
The woman beside Steven tapped her finger on a file. "I'm worried about this Hibiki kid. What's his malfunction? It seems that every one of the really good fighters has some problem or other. Curses and such seem to be epidemic."  
  
Another member of the board spoke up. "And this Saotome kid. He's got a curse and he seems to be a shit magnet. Every crazy thing in the world seems to happen to him What's up with that?"  
  
Steven snarled at the man. "He is a shit magnet and that's what makes him so good. He dosn't have to go looking for the problem. He stays in an area long enough and it comes to him. Just put him up somewhere and all their problems go away. As for the curse. We go that converted. It's under control and we've learned how to control a Jushenkyo curse. Sorry to say no cure yet. Anything else?"  
  
"Yeah! I hear that Saotome and Kuno don't get along and what about that Hibiki kid? How is he going to fit?. If we are going to make an effective strike team out of these kids they have to at least tolerate each other."  
  
Steven eyed the other man hotly. "They'll get along. I havent killed you yet have I? Most of these kids are smarter now than we'll ever be. They just don't have any experience."  
  
Everyone at the table shifted uncomfortably. The battels that Steven and Randy had had in the past were legendary. Including tearing down a building.   
  
"Down, boys! No fighting! It's not dignified." Rachel patted Steven's hand. "Honey don't let that baka get under your skin. It's what he wants."  
  
Randy rubbed his neck. "AW. Hell Steven, We get along preatty good I'm sorry I came off as an ass. I just hate it that we can't protect these kids We have been doing this for probably twenty years and I know that we can't keep it up much longer. Mary got killed just last week and Theo is in hospital again. We're running out of steam and we all know it but it's hard to give up."  
  
"We're not giving up!! Never think that. But we can't go on. I hate to admit it but we can't. No one can fight for ever. So we pass the torch to the next generation and try to give them all the tools that they need to carry on. You know how I hate all that chosen one crap but it's true. There are some of us who are here to put ourselves beetween others and harm. Ranma even told me that same thing right after he came here."  
  
"So here we are. We need intel; find out everything we can about these Rifts. See if there isn't at least a way to contorl where they appear. Two; find that Hibiki kid. Three, Get Ranma off that mountain and into classes. Four; Get Ranma and Kuno to at least tolerate each other. Find out if Hibiki will fit. Sunny will be part of their team so we have a good chance; if she dosn't talk them to death first."  
  
"Five: find out where the Rift is going to manifest so we can get our new team familiar with the area before crap starts coming through."  
  
"Leela and Danny are ready to go. I've never seen two people work so well together. They could steal your eye teeth and you wouldn't know it until you tried to eat something. They are really good."   
  
"Shuba will work with Ranma. He's a good coordinator. Give him the barest scraps of Data and he can come up with something. Good with computers, too, so he's really an asset. However, Ranma is better at stratigy than he is. He's one of the best tacitictians I've ever had the pleasure of being screwed over by."  
  
"I didn't tell you about this, but the little shit fooled us all. He took the tests and he fooled us. He came off all eager to show us what he had so we didn't push it like we should have. The kid held back, we have no idea how strong he really is. But he didn't try to escape so I think he really wants to stay here if we can convince him we're trustworthy. He comes off so bright eyed and innocent. I don't think it's entirely an act. He really has a good personality. He's kind hearted and dosn't like hurting people. He just has the social skills of............well.........me when I was his age. So,"  
  
A babble of "Oh, Shit!" "Kami help us all" And other exclamations broke out.   
  
"Hey! I wasn't that bad?! Was I?? Well??" Steven put his head in his hands and laughed. "Well, At least we know that he'll get better some time or other. He's no socalite but at least he knows how to use chop sticks."  
  
"Anyway, we have to convince him to be tested for real. I'd rather just go up and fight him but it'd probably scare the hell out of him. Or on the other hand might make him see that we are just like him. Real fighters not show offs. Some of the kids hes been fighting are really wierd, Martial Skating, gymnastics, Tea ceremony for Kami's sake."  
  
"Heaven help us!! I just figured out where the next Rift is opening. Nerema, Capitol City of Wierdness. And that's why there is such a gathering of good martial artists. Well, hell!"  
  
"Ok people now all we need to do is pin down the time frame. See what you can figure out."  
  
"Any other buisness? Ok, lets break this up." 


	11. Chapter 12

Disclaimer here. Don't own Ranma.  
  
Thank yous to Dogbertcarroll, powellt, Jerry Unipeg, Lumly, Taxzombie, and Brother Angelon   
  
Sasami Tombo and ranger 5, you got it.  
  
Chapter 12: On the Mountain  
  
{blah, blah} [blah, blah] Ranma talking to himself  
  
Ranma wrapped his hand in a strip of cloth. He would have to avoid hitting anything with it for a while and the cloth would remind him not to. Sunny had done a good job of healing it but it was still sore and he didn't want to undo all Sunny's good work.  
  
Ranma decided to spend more time meditating until his hand healed. If he spent too much more time training he was going to go stale and he knew that it could be more dangerous than not enough training. The human body could only reach a certain level.  
  
If he wanted to maintain it he was going to have to slack off. He analyzed his level of training as Ramna and Ranko and decided he was at optimum. In order to maintain maximum levels he would have to start hurting himself and that wouldn't do anyone any good.  
  
When he got to the cottage he showered and wrapped a towel around his waist. Wandering onto the porch he sprawled across a cushion and began to braid his hair. {Maybe I should cut it. Someone could grab my pigtail and that wouldn't be good........for them. I'd like to see anyone but Ryouga get away with that. I wonder how he's doing?}  
  
After eating the last of his supplies he rolled up in a blanket and fell asleep on the porch.  
  
Next morning Ranma called control and asked them to get a basket ready. He warned them not to send it up, telling the man he talked to that the road was in even worse shape than ever.  
  
"I'll come and get it when I'm done training. Don't let anyone try to drive even a jeep over that road. It's washing out." Ranma didn't think anyone would ignore a straight forward order. Was he wrong!  
  
"BEEP!! BEEP!!" Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin. He had been meditating and the noise was magnified by the silence of the plateau.  
  
"Yeah. Yeah. What the hell is wrong?"  
  
"Did John get up to your place? He's not back yet and we can't find him."  
  
"John? You mean the supply guy? I thought I told you guys not to send any one up here. The road has drooped off. You can't get a jeep through. And the break....... Damn!" Ranma took off running leaving Sergeant Samuels talking to an open circuit.  
  
Ranma trotted along the road looking for breaks in the weeds or skid marks. He knew John was off the road somewhere and needed help. If he wasn't in trouble why hadn't he come either to the cottage or shown up back at the depot.  
  
A break in the weeds told its own tale. The break came at a place where the road cut back sharply. You couldn't tell that it was too narrow until it was too late to do anything but brace for the crash  
  
"John! Hey! John! You down there?" Ranma scrambled down to the jeep. It was on it's side.  
  
"Ranma! Damn, am I glad to see your ugly face." John grinned his relief.  
  
"Can you move? Is anything broken?" Ranma ran his hands over as much of John's body as he could reach looking for blood or broken bones. "Where's your radio? We need to get you a medic."  
  
"I'm not hurt. Nothing broken. I"m just trapped by the steering column. It's bent over my ankle and I can't pull out."  
  
Ranma looked around for the radio first. Finding it in some weeds where it had fallen from the jeep as it rolled; Ranma called in for help. After talking to the dispatcher Ranma examined the situation with a rather jaundiced eye.  
  
"I know I speak good. Not grammatical like I oughtta' but clear. I told that man this road wasn't safe. So why are you in a ditch with a steering column wrapped around your ankle? Huh? " Ranma wasn't happy at all, if he was going to work with these people he had to be able to depend on them and so far so bad.  
  
"Well, let me see what I can do while those idiots are getting here."   
  
Ranma crawled into the jeep and felt around under the dash board. John was lying half in half out of the jeep. One foot was clear but the other was pinned between the bent steering column and the pedals. The old jeep was one of the studier kinds with a solid floor board supported by several angel iron cross members. John's foot was trapped between the pedals, floor members and a bent steering column.  
  
'You're really stuck. Have you got a knife? I'm going to cut your boot laces. See if you can pull your foot out of your boot."  
  
John dug his knife out of his pocket and handed it to Ranma.  
  
Opening the knife Ranma stuck his head and shoulders back in the jeep and cut John's boot laces pulling the gore open as wide as he could.  
  
John pulled and grunted, finally snarling "Nope! No good, it won't budge and I've hurt my bad knee pulling. What next?"  
  
Ranma eyed the jeep, it was more or less flat on its side; but he didn't want to pull around on it too much. It might tip completely over on John. That would crush him injuring him for sure.  
  
"Well, let me see if I can do somethin' with this steering column. If I can bend it some you might be able to get your foot out. I don't want to get too rough with it. It might tip over on you."  
  
Just then they heard a yell from above. "Hey! John! You down there? Ranma you there?"   
  
Ranma braced the jeep as two solders slid down the steep bank. "Wow! It's got to be all of thirty feet. How come you didn't get ......."  
  
Ranma just grabbed the two and held them away from the jeep "If you knock that jeep over on John I'm gonna cream both of ya. Go back up to the top and get some ropes rigged. We can't just haul John up by main force. Get going!"  
  
"Hey you aren't the boss a me. Sergeant Samuals is. Besides how are we supposed to get back up that slope?"   
  
"You shoulda' thought a' that before ya slid down here. Double team up and get ropes rigged. Now!"  
  
Ranma turned back to the jeep. He had to get John out before those idiots messed everything up.  
  
"John, I'm going to have to take a chance and bend that column to get you out before those dummies kill you. I'll be as gentile as I can. Tell me if anything hurts you."  
  
Ranma crawled into the jeep braced his feet against the door and put his shoulder under the column. All he had to do then was straighten up and hope that John's foot wasn't crushed when the column bent. If he had the angle right all that would happen was John's foot would come free; if he had the angle wrong he could cut it off instead.  
  
"Hey! Ok, ok, I'm free." John's eyes bugged out. Ranma had bent the steering column into a pretzel. From at a twenty degree angle pointing down it was now bent into a ninety degree angle straight up.  
  
"Well, great! Now if those fools get a rope down here we can get you up and into the infirmary."   
  
Ranma waited a while but no ropes. No sound: nothing. "Where the hell are those guys? Shit, I could be all the way to the school by now. Hey! You guys! Where are you? Where's that rope?"  
  
Ranma started up the slope but it was really steep so he decided to jump instead.  
  
Two jumps later he was on the top and no sight of the two troopers. Just their jeep and another coming up the road. Ranma greeted the new jeep with a glare of disgust  
  
"Hey, Samuels didn't I tell you that road wasn't worth shit? What's the matter? Didn't you believe me? I know I'm just a kid but I've got eyes in my head. Got some rope? We need about a hundred feet and I don't want two ropes tied together either."  
  
One of the other occupants of the jeep took exception to Ranma immediately. "Hey, kid, what do you think you're doing?. You can't just take over here! We know what we're doing. You'll just get in the way. Why don't you just step aside and let the experts take over."  
  
"Ok! Take over! But I'd like to know how you're going to get a guy with a bum knee up that slope with out a basket gurney or any ropes. I could get him up with just some rope, but I'll leave it to you to fuck it up; then I'll snatch your nuts out of the fire."  
  
Ranma sat down on the opposite side of the road 'out of the way' leaned back with his arms behind his head and watched.  
  
After half an hour of scrambling, swearing and sweating ( and John telling them all what idiots they were. In language he could only have learned in the military) The four 'experts' gave up and turned to Ranma.  
  
"We can't get a chopper in, it's too overgrown. We can't get up and down that slope. I give up. Ranma how are we going to get him out. We can't even get the jeep into position to use the winch. I was sure we could get him up with a winch." Samuals had been afraid of this but his pride had gotten in his way. How would it look if four grown men had to rely on a sixteen year old boy to do the job.  
  
"Get me that hundred straight feet of rope. No knots. I don't want to have to deal with trying to work around a knot. Park the jeep here so I can use it for a belay point."  
  
"John, can you walk at all?"  
  
"Sorry! No way! Nothing is broken but I'm not going to be dancing any jigs either. What do you need me to do."  
  
"I'm going to tie myself off and walk you up on my back. How much do you weigh?"  
  
"Hey! you sure about that? I weigh in at 280 plus or minus a steak or two!" John wasn't too sure about this but he trusted Ranma more that a bunch of snot nosed new recruits. He'd seen some of Ranma's training, but still.  
  
"Yeah, I'm sure! You've seen me carry those pack baskets. How much do you think they weigh?"  
  
Ranma coiled the rope the newly arrived medics brought to him. Knoting a harness in the end of the rope he stepped into the loops and wrapped the long tail around his waist and tied it off. He fed the other end through a carabiner in the heavy tow ring welded to the frame of the jeep.Wrapping the rope around his arm he pulled hard.  
  
Satisfied with the strength of the rope he started walking down the steep slope, feeding the rope through his hands as he walked down using a standing rappel.  
  
"Here let us feed you the slack" One of the troopers grabbed the rope.  
  
"Get your hands off that rope! If you foul the coils I'll come up there and make you eat every last inch!" Ranma hoped that the idiot hadn't fouled the carefully arranged coils of the rope. Working with this long a rope it had to be just right or it would knot and wouldn't go through the carabiner. He'd rather take the chance of using a self belay than rely on an ignorant belay monkey.  
  
John watched Ranma work the rope and felt real relief. This kid was the real deal, he knew exactly what he was doing.   
  
"Here! Get on my back and wrap your legs around my waist. Don't put both your arms around my neck I don't want to get straggled." Ranma's instructions were plain and straight to the point.   
  
John put one arm under Ranma's arm and the other over his shoulder; wrapping his legs around Ranma's waist he settled in as best he could.  
  
"Sir, yes Sir! Ready for carry, Sir!" John snickered in Ranmas ear.  
  
"Well better hang on to your hair cause here we go." Ranma walked up the slope like it was a flat sidewalk using the rope to pull himself and John up to the road.  
  
"Well there you are safe and almost sound. Better sit down and get off that knee." Ranma grinned at John. "Next time could you be all you can be and stay out of wrecks?"  
  
"Sure, Saotome-san. Next time you might not be around to rescue my sorry ass. You can't rely on most of the dummies around here. If you need something look for an old fart, we're all grunts together." A medic grabbed John unexpectedly. " Hey! Ow! Get offa me! Damnit, where do they get these over educated idiots."  
  
John pushed the medic away and limped to the ambulance himself. "I don't mind young. We were all young once, but I can't stand ignorant. I can't stand these kids who are in this for the glory." John turned around and shouted after a retreating Ranma. "Hey Saotome-san, remember! With a medal and a dollar you can get a cup of coffee."  
  
Ranma turned around and ran backwards. "Yeah! I know! Take care!"  
  
Ranma tickled fish for supper and found some mushrooms and herbs to stuff it. Breakfast was left over fish.  
  
Supplies appeared in an unexpected way. They were dropped by helicopter right into the side yard. Ranma was glad that he didn't have to go down to the depo to get them. He didn't feel like seeing anyone yet.  
  
Ranma sat under the water fall meditating. He didn't feel the water pounding on his head and shoulders nor did he notice how cold it was.   
  
He chanted a mantra seeking peace and centering.   
  
Om Asato maa sadgamaya  
  
tamaso maa jyotir gamaya  
  
mrityor maa amrtam gamaya.  
  
om shaantih shaantih shaantih.  
  
As he repeated the mantra he felt himself centering. He felt peaceful for the first time in a long time. Since Jushenkyo in fact.  
  
{Get up Saotome and get on with things. You better get over this as best you can. There's too much for you to do to be coddling yourself like this} [Yeah. But it feels so good just to sit lotus and meditate without having to look out for someone smacking me on the back of the head and telling me I'm a sissy]  
  
Ranma left the waterfall and headed for the field of stakes. His wet clothing stuck to his muscular body as he ran.   
  
Two little spys got an eye full.  
  
"Oh... My ...Goodness!"  
  
"Oh, yeah! Yummy goodness!"  
  
"Sunny, you are a pervert."  
  
"Says you Leela, you have drool on your chin."  
  
The two girls headed back to the school their mission completed. They could tell everyone that Ranma was OK.  
  
Ranma was perched on a stake poised to begin a kata. {Why am I doing this? Because Pop said it was what I should do or because I think it's the best way to develop balance?} [I like it!] Ranma went up. If anyone had been watching all they would have seen was blurs and a few pauses as Ranma seemed to appear from nowhere to stand poised on the ball of his foot on one attack or another. {I'm good now. Ranko and Ranma are both as good as I'm going to get and be able to maintain the level. I'm about ready to leave. If I could just get my emotions under control.}  
  
Ranma changed to Ranko and started his workout as his other half. She moved throught kata as if it was nothing. Her slender body defying gravity just as easily as Ranma. Her leaps were more graceful but just as powerful. Her strikes would never be as hard; it was impossible. She just didn't have the muscle mass to power them but her strikes were devastation all the same. Saying that Ranko wasn't as powerful as Ranma was like saying that a stick of dynamite wasn't as powerful as C-4. True but the difference wasn't discernible to any but the experts.  
  
Ranko changed and decided to quit for the day. He was sweaty and wanted to take a bath and relax for once. But it was not to be  
  
"Hey! Curry bread!"   
  
Ranma dodged the flying object, catching it before it got by him. He looked at the package in his hand his lips moved silently. "Curry bread?"  
  
He took up a defensive stance as Ryouga dropped out of the sky. No "die Saotome" or anything like that rang out.  
  
Instead, "Ranma Saotome; I, Ryouga Hibiki, cancel our feud. We fight no more forever. OK, now that the formalities are over with. Do you want to beat me ta a pulp?" "Thanks for the GPS. I got a bunch of different breads. I'm hungry, want to join me for lunch or would you rather have a sparing match first?"  
  
"Spar then lunch. Heavy fight, no blood but go hard. OK?"  
  
At Ryouga's nod Ranma took up a stance. At first you wouldn't even know that they were fighting. First Ranma twitched then Ryouga; Ryouga moved his hand, Ranma moved his foot.This went on for nearly half an hour.  
  
Then Ryouga made a mistake. He left Ranma an opening. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ryuga back peddled, Ranma pushed his advantage and Ryouga countered with a leap the took him behind Ranma and launched a kick that sent Ranma flying. He hit the cliff at the head of the clearing with a boom.   
  
"Ow! That hurt! Damnit. I'm getting careless" Ranma was disgusted; he knew better.  
  
Ranma dragged himself out of the cliff. He met Ryouga in mid air both boys punching and kicking so fast that all you could see were blurs.   
  
KA-DOOM!   
  
Ranma and Ryouga hit the ground at almost the same time. Ranma managed to dig himself out first. He grabbed Ryouga by the arm and flipped him onto his stomach trying for a pin. Ryouga eeled out of Ranma's hold losing a little skin in the process. Ranma kicked him in the back to put some room between them but Ryouga was ready and the kick only resulted in Ryouga getting a good grip on his ankle. But having Ranma by the ankle was like having a tiger by the tail. Ranma pulled back his foot and kicked Ryouga high into the air using only the leverage of his thigh muscles.  
  
"Well when he comes down I'll ask him to lunch"  
  
"Look Up!" Ranma did and Ryouga dropped on him like a ton of bricks. Ranma took it right in the face. The kick stunned Ranma for a split second which Ryouga took advantage of. He got Ranma in a choke hold hoping to hang on long enough to choke Ranma out  
  
"Are you done yet?" Ranma let Ryouga choke him for a while then bent down and grabbed Ryouga by the ankles. He jerked Rayouga off his feet and turned him over locking his feet in a funny looking hold.   
  
After struggeling for a while Ryouga gave up. "Ok I give! Let me go. Uncle, Anties and all that!! Where did you learn that hold?"  
  
"Saw it on TV. Really useful when you don't wnt to have to knock someone out. What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
"Looking for you actually. To give you that curry bread and a bunch of other breads. All fresh" Ryouga looked at Ranma hopefully  
  
Ranma sat down on the ground and started laughing. He laughed til he cried and than laughed somemore.  
  
(A/N Boys are so weird!)  
  
"Hey Ryouga, man! I'm really sorry about getting you dunked. You ought to know I wouldn't have done it on purpose. Not for the world and every thing in it. We can be friends if you want to . I'd like that."  
  
"So would I. I know what your Pop did. Can we talk? Is the....." Ryouga stopped talking. Ranma looked so sad.  
  
"Look, let's go to my cottage, eat some lunch, have some tea and I'll tell you everything. I'm glad you finaly decided to forgive me. I need some one to talk to."   
  
Ryouga nodded and at Ranmas gesture he followed him to his cottage at a full run.  
  
Doris ran into Stevens office grabbed him and dragged him to the window. Pushing him toward a telescope she nearly shrieked, "God some kid just attacked Ranma they're tearing each other up. Look! Look!"  
  
Steven grabbed the telescope just in time to see Ranma and Ryouga hit ground together "Oh, shit they're both dead! No Ranma's up Damnit What just happened. They're just standing there talking. Now Ranma's laughing."  
  
When Ranma and Ryouga headed for the cottage Steven went back to his desk. "What the hell was that all about? Call Ranma and ask him if he needs anything. Get a status report from all watch posts and try to figure out what the Hell just happened!!"  
  
"Fuck! I'm too old for this shit!"  
  
Nothing to say. Read and review please and thank you 


	12. Chapter 13

Disclaimer here.  
  
chapter 13  
  
Ryouga looked around the cottage. "Hey, this is pretty nice. All the comforts of home."  
  
Ranma just handed Ryouga a kettle. "Here, make yourself useful. We'll have tea and I've got some ramen that just takes hot water. I think there's some pickles left."  
  
The two boys worked in companionable silence, fixing the fire and setting out food.  
  
After eating Ryouga looked at Ranma and just said, "Talk."  
  
Ranma talked and talked; telling Ryouga everything that had happened to him. He sat side by side with Ryouga and when he finally wound down Ryouga put his hand on Ranma's shoulder patting it sympathetically.  
  
That was Ranmas undoing; he started to cry. Not sobbing; just letting the tears trickle down his cheeks, his shoulders shaking gently. "Sorry! Don't look at me! I just can't stand it. They kept me hungry, thirsty, dirty. They chained my hands behind my back and threw food on the floor. They called me dog and led me around by my neck."  
  
"I refused to fight for them and they killed the first guy right in front of me. He begged me to fight him."   
  
"They hurt me until I would have done anything just t' get it t' stop for a second; so I fought. They made me a murderer! I never even really hurt anyone before. I don't know what I'm going t' do. I need t' get myself together but every time I think I've got it made I see that man. He was no one's patsy. But all it took was one punch. They punished me for not making the fight last longer. Damn them!"   
  
"Ryouga what 'm I gonna do?"  
  
Ryouga sighed, this was a real mess. "I respect you more than any fighter I have ever faced or ever will. Ya know why?" Ranma shook his head "Because you are the kindest person I know. That means that you are utterly ruthless when ya have to be. Ya killed that man because ya had no choice but t' kill 'im. Ya did it fast so he wouldn't suffer. Ya knew that they would punish ya, didn't ya? But what choice did ya have? If ya hadn't killed those men the slavers would have killed you, wouldn't they? And ya knew that we, all your friends and family would suffer until we found ya. So ya chose the greatest good. And now you're still suffering. You've got to quit punishing yourself! You're doing it even if ya don't realize it."  
  
"Ya haven't contacted anyone outside of letting us know that you're still alive. Ya haven't made any friends here. You're up here all alone trying to patch your head together. Why? Because ya know that you're unstable right now and ya don't want to hurt anyone. Don't sit there sniveling and shaking your head. Ya know I'm right."  
  
"Yeah! I'm unstable" Ranma snarled. "One minute I'm shiverin' like a dog that's been whipped and the next I'm so close to goin' orbital that it's all I can do to stand still. I've got all these feelin's inside me; anger, fear, hate! I can't sleep the whole night anymore; I wake up shakin'. And this is really weird! I don't want anyone even lookin' at my food. It was all I could do to sit there and watch ya eat with out tryin' ta grab it. And that's just stupid."  
  
"I've been meditatin' and workin' out and it's really helpin'. I know I should talk to someone but I don't trust anyone anymore. I think I trust you more than anyone; because I've fought ya. That's stupid, too, but I think that fightin' someone really shows what they're made of. I know that you'll never hurt me...... that you're really my friend despite our differences. Ryouga, I'm beggin' ya; help me I'll ......." Ranma looked at Ryouga his eyes clouded.  
  
"Ok, Ranma, I'll help ya. But ya have t' do exactly what I say. No arguments no thinking it to pieces! Just do it! Ok?"  
  
"Ok, Ryouga, whatever ya say. I've got to get myself under control or they're gonna have t' shoot me down sooner or later 'cause I'm gonna go postal."  
  
"First order of business; no arguin'! Promise? No.... ya have t' say it out loud; ya know it's not a real promise until ya say it."  
  
"OK I promise t' do whatever ya tell me t' do, no matter how nasty it is. How's that. Just don't tell me t' eat worms or somethin'. Ok?"  
  
Ryouga took Ranma by the back of the neck pulling him down to rest his head on a pillow . "Ya got t' cry, buddy. Let it all out. If ya don't let it out it's gonna fester and drive you mad. And I need my friend to remain the Wild Horse not become mad horse. Ya understand? Get it outta your system or it'll kill you."  
  
Ranma looked a Ryouga. With his head on a pillow Ryouga looked somehow commanding. Ranma felt foolish. He didn't cry; it was weak and Pop had long ago beaten the tears out of him. He felt embarrassed every time he let them show, even for a second.  
  
"Ranma, I not only give ya permission t' cry; I demand ya do it. Ya promised." But Ranma had given up and was crying for all he was worth. Not big bawling sobs just tiny whimpers and a silvery track of tears that disappeared into the fine hair of his temple. It took him almost half an hour to quietly say, "Well I guess ya really think I'm a fool now. Cryin' like a girl! Ugh! My hair's all wet."  
  
Ryouga just gave Ranma a bandanna and when he was done with it, gave him a cup of tea.  
  
"Here! It's herbal; chamomile, valerian and hops. It'll make ya feel better. No, I don't think I want that back Why don'tcha keep it." Ryouga studied Ranma while he sipped the tea. He looked relaxed for the first time sense Ryouga had seen him.   
  
"You'll feel silly at first. But my advice t' ya is t' remember what your Pop told you and do exactly the opposite. Showin' emotions isn't unmanly. Loosin' control of 'em is. If ya don't express emotions in acceptable ways they come out anyway and usually in the most unacceptable way."  
  
Ranma eyed Ryouga, "How'd ya get t' be so smart? You've barely been in school. I don't mean ya skip but I know ya can't find the building most of the time so how......"  
  
Ryouga produced a laptop from his pack. "I actually have a degree in psychology from Tokyo U Online. I'm doin' a paper on the psychology of homelessness. Where ever I am I always seem t' be able t' find a Net link. Libraries are great and there's one in every town and most villages have a Net cafe a' one sort or another. I served my internship on a locked ward at Osaka National so I hid out in unused rooms and never left the ward for the whole six-weeks."  
  
Ranma whistled softly. "I know you're no dummy; but that's incredible. You're 18 and have a PhD. Damn!"  
  
"Yeah. Nabiki fixed my birth certificate; it says I'm 21. Hey, come on. It's late and we've both been under a lot a' stress. Why don't we go t' bed; it's been dark for a while."  
  
Ranma dug out the futon and his old sleeping bag. Ryouga helped him spread the bedding out and they both settled down for the night  
  
Midnight  
  
"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WONT DO IT! LET ME GO! Stop! It hurts! I WON'T KILL HIM!! " Ranma thrashed and kicked.  
  
He was tangeled in the quilt and panicked. His thrashing only served to tangle him worse, wrapping it ever more tightly around his legs.  
  
"I'm so hungry, I wish they'd feed me. why? Thirsty. Water? No I can't beg !!"  
  
Ranma continued to mumble fighting the covers with grim determination. He had managed to get one hand behind his back and hung in the torn sweat shirt he had on.  
  
Ryouga took Ranma under the arms and lifted him out of the tangle of quilt and sheet which had entrapped him. Ranma immediately began to thrash, kicking and struggling.  
  
Ryouga finally had to get Ranma in a Psycho Hug so that neither of them would get hurt. Ryouga wraped his arms around Ranma's chest while holding his wrists, crossing his arms and Ranma's. He also pinned Ranmas legs by crossing his legs over his thighs. Holding Ranma from the back Ryouga forced him forward, effectively immobilizing him without hurting him. "SShhh! Ranma, it's ok.......it's ok.......no one's going to hurt you. Hush! Hush! I've got you. Anyone tries anything we'll take care of them together. Come on, wake up. Wakey! Wakey!"  
  
Ranma woke up; coming back to consciousness with a jerk. "Oh, Ryouga. It hurts..it hurts so damn much! I fuckin' can't stand it. I'm not fit t' be around........." Then almost a whisper "Ryu get offa me. Please get off. I can't be pined down. Get off before I loose it."  
  
Ryouga scrambled off quickly, but he didn't let go of Ranma. He kept hold of his wrist. "Ranma you're not gonna take off runnin' like you usually do. It's too dark out! There's no moon. Sit here and I'll make us some tea. Start talkin'! Just let it out!"  
  
"Ya don't wanna listen t' my incoherent ramblin's."  
  
"Yeah, I do. It's called stream a' consciousness analysis. Just say whatever comes inta your head. You'd be surprised what ya come up with. It's better for ya than puttin' up with nightmares. I think we'll see the sun come up."  
  
After a few false starts Ranma finally got going. "I really don't like the way I feel. I'm not in control of myself. I got so much pain and anger that I don't know were t' go with it; no technique I know is doin' much good. I came up here t' get away from people but they keep followin' me. They mean well. They're only tryin' t' help, but when they're around I have t' keep myself under such tight control that I feel like I'm still chained up. I'm holdin' control by a thread now. I want t' scream so bad!"   
  
Ranma held out a shaking hand "I can't stop shakin'. I know ya aren't gonna hurt me; but I'm still shakin' from that hug thing. Ya have t' teach me that when I can stand bein' touched again. I want t' go inta the mountains so far that ya need a fuckin' helicopter t' get t' me. I need t' fast, meditate and practice yoga and tai che until I get my center back. But I know that it's not gonna happen. One minute I think I've got a handle on things the next I'm flyin' apart again. I don't understand it."  
  
Ryouga raised an eyebrow. "If ya need t' go just do it. They can't stop you."   
  
"Yeah, they can! Cause I'll let 'em."   
  
"If I can't get myself together they'll keep me here. Steven said I could leave as long as I had myself under control. If I can't control my chi they won't let me leave here ever again. It's not my chi that's out of control it's my emotions. I can't stay here. I need t' see Akane, I need t' go back t' Nerima. I have t' be there and I can't tell you why."  
  
"God! I'm so fucked!"  
  
"What if I go and somethin' happens? What if I really snap? Loose control a' my emotions and tear up the town? You want t' count the corpses?"  
  
"I'm in control a' my chi. That's never been the problem. I'm not in controll a' myself and that is."  
  
Ryouga handed Ranma a cup of tea. "Shit! I can see what's wrong with you already. You've got one a' the worst cases a' Combat Fatigue I've ever heard a'. I wonder why it hasn't manifested before now? Probably being enslaved triggered it. Ya can get through this; and with you I don't think you're gonna need a long course a' treatment. You're too strong t' need that. All ya have t' do is face up t' what you've done and why ya did it. I know killin' someone is a terrible thing, but if ya didn't kill them; they would have killed you or the slavers would have. And killed them too. Just t' make an example a' both a' ya. Face up t' what ya did and why."   
  
Ranma sipped tea. After a while he sighed and muttered. "I just wanna go back t' the way I was before."  
  
Ryouga grimmaced.  
  
"Ranma ya can't. Ya'll never be what ya were. That's impossible. You know the secret of steel as well as I do. You'll never be broken, you're too strong. But you are changed and always will be. Ya can either let experience cripple ya or ya can learn what the experience has t' teach ya and move on with your life"  
  
"Yeah, the secret a' steel. Human flesh and spirit are stronger. Break a sword and ya have no sword. The steel can be reforged but it's a whole new sword. Break a man and he'll heal sooner or later. But I've seen men who never healed and others who healed wrong. What happens if I heal wrong? I'm crazy!"  
  
Ryouga interupted. "No ya aren't. If you're afraid ya are then ya aren't. Only the crazy people believe they're sane. You won't heal wrong. If ya can see the posibility then it can be countered. Now drink your tea and stop snivelin'. Ya need t' make a plan a' action. Ya can't keep thrashin' around like this. Ya need goals. Figure out what ya need t' do and do it. Suck it up tough guy!"  
  
"I'm tryin'. I can't get centered and that's what I need the most."  
  
"Ranma, Damn it! If ya can't get centered then ya aren't doing it right."   
  
"I know where my center is. I've been centered all my life. That's why I feel so messed up."   
  
"After all you've been through don't ya think that your center might be different than it use t' be? Instead a' trying t' force your center, why not let it find you?"  
  
Ranma staired at Ryouga as if he had two heads.  
  
"Damn it. I'm so stupid. Why didn't I think a' that?"  
  
"Because ya can't see the forest for the trees?"  
  
Ranma just drank tea and smiled.  
  
"Come on, Ryu, let's get goin'. I wanna get ya down the mountain, talk t' Steven and get things goin'. I'm gonna do it this time." Ranma jogged in place while he waited for Ryouga to pack his stuff.  
  
Ryouga smiled to himself. Ranma, once he got the bit between his teeth was as accurate as a well placed arrow. He regretted all the time they had spent fighting. But he knew that their frindship was stronger for it. They knew each others heart and that was worth anything they had gone through. He wondered how he could have spent so much time mad at him. {Well, we grow up and things change.}  
  
"I'm comin'...Hold your horses... Damn it, Ranma stop laughin'! No; on second thought laugh all you want."  
  
"Ryouga, I know ya. Do ya still have that hand cuff from when we first fought?"  
  
"Yeah. I never throw much a' anything useful away. Why?"  
  
"Give it here. I'm gonna fasten our belts together. Ya can't wander away from me if we're fastened together. Ya'll disapear right out from under my nose, ya jerk." Ranma suited action to words and locked one cuff around each of their belts.  
  
As they started down the road Ranma and Ryouga matched their pace and stride almost automatically. It was easy to work with each other; the farther they went the better they got, until it was as if they had always run together. Then almost with out thinking about they started to spar on the run.  
  
As the terrain passed Ranma pointed out points of interest to Ryouga. The waterfall that Ranma meditated by or under. The field of stakes, a good place to find herbs and mushrooms and Ryouga followed happily admiring everything. And the sparing never stopped.  
  
"Wow! Ranma this is really nice country. It's a great place t' train; it's far enought away from things that ya can train without worrin' about people but close enought t' a town that you're not...like..exiled. Ya know?"  
  
"Yeah, I know. It's nice. I wonder.." Ranma decided then and there. "Ryouga? Ya got a degree and all. Would ya consider bein' my...ah..ya know?"  
  
"Sure I will....its not...ah..we're friends so I shouldn't, but I understand ya better than any office shrink would, so yeah I'll give it a go."  
  
"Thanks. Hey! Duck!" Ranma grabbed the dart out of the air.  
  
"Shit!" Ryouga ducked another.  
  
Ranma snapped his sash with a jerk and shed his shirt. Using his shirt he swept several darts out of the air. They were the same kind vets used on animals that they wanted to tranqulize. The solders who were shooting at them started re-loading.  
  
"Damn. I'd like t' know what the hell these idiots think they're doin'. Come on, Ryu, stay close." Ryouga was pleased to see that Ranma had retained his composure, he was going to be fine.  
  
The two boys ducked, dodged and ran. Neither wanted to get into a fight with these people. They were only following orders from higher up. If they tried to fight them someone would get seriously hurt and it wouldn't be either boy.  
  
Steven looked up at the crash. His window had exploded inward and Ranma and a strange boy landed in the middle of his office.  
  
"What the hell? What's going on here?' Steven eyed the handcuff Ranma was holding "Who's this and why do you have him on a chain?"  
  
Ranma held up the chain. "This is Ryouga Hibiki. I chained him t' me so he wouldn't get lost. But the real question is...why were those jerks tryin' t' dart us?  
  
Ranma threw his shirt at Steven. It had half a dozed darts in it. "That many darts could have seriously ..." Ranma didn't get any farther.  
  
"Doris!! Get in here!"   
  
Doris stuck her head in the door "Already on it; Boss. Some flunkie just overreacted to a little sparing on the run. I've calmed them down and I'm getting out the axe. Heads will roll."  
  
Ranma rolled the chain up and handed it to Ryouga "Hang on t' that. It's come in handy. We might need it again."  
  
"Steven we need t' talk and I'm not messin' around now."  
  
"I lied t' ya several times. I'm a lot stronger than I let on. I have nightmares and I'm really fucked up. I have complete control a' my chi but my emotions are completely gone."  
  
Steven froze. "Are you still afraid of us? We only want to help you. We need you more than you know. We'll provide you with anything you need to get better; but if you lie to us we can't help you. Why are you telling me this now?"  
  
"Because Ryouga and I had a real heart t' heart and I know I need t' talk t' him. He's agreed to be my ...whatever....I trust him and he seems to think I can trust you. He said you guys are like Division 13 or somethin'. I've heard of ya. Why didn't ya tell me who ya are?"  
  
"Division 13? I've ...we're not... Hell,Ok. We're Division 13. (We had a name and didn't know it?) We didn't want to scare you more than you already were. I mean think about it. Here you are sold by your own father, tortured, sold again and reacued. Then I tell you you've been rescued by deamon hunters or whatever you want to call us. Yeah, real reasuring."  
  
"Ok, I can understand that. It makes sense."   
  
"I just thank my lucky stars they didn't make you kill some...........Shit."  
  
The look on Ranma's face made Steven swear. He swore for a minute straight.   
  
"How many and how did they. .. "  
  
Ranma interupted so he could get it out before he chickened. "I killed two with my own hands and caused the death of a third. I refused t' kill him so they killed him in front of me. T' make an example a' both a' us. I can't seem t' get used t' that. It won't go away. It won't get easier."  
  
"Damn, Ranma; the day you don't feel bad about it. The day it gets easy is the day you turn into a stone cold killer. I've been dealing with this for years. It dosen't get easier ever. This is what separates the men from the deamons. Killing hurts you or you're not fit to live."  
  
"You finally learn to live with it. Kid, you can't keep beating yourself up over this. It's not your fault. You were put in a position where you had to choose your life or theirs. It's human and natural to choose your own life over someone else. Self sacrifice has to make sense or you won't do it. If some one told you to choose between Ryouga and yourself who would you choose?  
  
"Me!" Ranma answered with out hesitation. Then blinked. "Oh."  
  
"Damn it, Ranma I can take care a' myself...Uh..but thanks anyway." Ryouga put his hand on Ranmas shoulder.  
  
"Don't touch me!" Ranma shrugged Ryougas hand off without thinking."Damn. Sorry 'bout that"  
  
Ranma turned to Steven. "I need honest answers to some questions. No fakin' or dodgin'. Can I leave here whenever I want? If yes, why? Am I really needed? Where's Tatiwaki? Do you know how dangerous I really am?"  
  
Steveh looked at Ryouga; he wished he could talk to this young man before he had to answer these questions.  
  
"As long as you have control of your chi we won't stop you from going any time you want. The only reason we didn't let you go immediately is we needed to be sure you were in control of it. We need you like no one else on this earth. Without you and a few other kids like you we're going to be up to our asses in oni and god knows what else with in three or four years. Tatiwaki is here, if you'd like to see him I'll arange it. He's in therapy and doing quite well. NO I have no idea what you can really do; you faked all the tests."  
  
"I was scared of ya; so I fudged the tests. I figured if I did fairly well you'd let it go. I held back so I could escape if I felt I needed to. I'm sorry. I know now ya did the best ya could. After meditatin" and half way gettin' my head together I realize that you're on my side. It's strange because no one has ever helped me just because I needed it. They always want somethin' in return...Yeah...Yeah... ya want me t' fight for ya. That's different. Ya need me t' help ya do somthin' for others, not yourself."   
  
"I'm goin' on a real retreat. I'm headed up the mountain so high ya need helicopters t' find me. But don't. I need t' know that no one is gonna get hurt if I go ballistic. If I'm not back in ten days come up and give me a good funeral. No!! Ya aren't gonna stop me. If I can't get my emotions in control in ten days it's not gonna happen. If I lose my temper in this condition lots of people are gonna die."  
  
"I'm in complete control of my chi; it's my emotions that are wonky. Watch this."  
  
Ranma pressed his thumbs and index fingers together making a circle. Then when a small ball of light formed he palmed it and tossed it through the window. WHAM! the limb of the tree out side Stevens window exploded into match sticks. "And that was only a small blast."  
  
Steven paled, "Damn. Kid I've seen power before but that was incredable."  
  
"I don't usually throw temper tantrums, but the state I'm in now I feel like it about half the time. I can't have people comin' up on me unexpectadly. Or disturbin' me while I"m meditatin'. It's come real close a few times so I'm always on guard. I can't really consentrate. I'm gone. I'll be back or I'll be dead."  
  
Ranma jumped out the window. Steven started to chase him but Ryouga caught his arm. "Don't! He won't like or appreciate it. Ya haven't messed up yet; don't do it now. We need t' talk. Ryouga Hibiki, in case you missed it."  
  
"Ok, Hibiki; start talking." Ryouga did and Steven listened   
  
"I don't have to like it; but you're right. I'm checking your credentials but if they check out. Shit, even if they don't; you're officially Ranmas councelor. You need help you ask for it."   
  
Ryouga nodded. "Yeah. But you'll find that I'm compentent. I faked my age on the papers. They say 21. But I am good; and if I need help I'll come screaming. I don't want to mess this up." 


	13. Chapter 14

I don't own Ranma.   
  
Genma 14  
  
Ranma picked up a pack basket at the supply depot and headed out. He'd packed this one himself and chosen freeze dried rations and powdered juices. Eight days worth. He also took a sleeping bag and tiny stove. If he didn't feel results in eight days that was going to be it. He also took a rather large survival knife.  
  
It took him most of a day to get to the place he had chosen. You couldn't get into this valley except through a narrow pass; then it opened into one of the most beautiful places he'd ever seen. A nice place to work out his problems get a grip on himself and decide some things.  
  
As he walked he gathered wild food stuffs. He liked wild gathered things to supplement the dried rations. He also found some mushrooms called "Death's Angel" If he needed to he could brew a tea from them which would painlessly put him to sleep, forever.  
  
Ranma found a small cave; a good place to stash his pack. He spread out his sleeping bag and went to sleep just as the sun was setting.  
  
The sun rise was beautiful. Ranma had set his sleeping bag just right, he could see it from were he lay. His day had started.   
  
After breakfast he prayed for the first time in a long time. A real prayer not just the rote prayers that were expected of everyone at festivals and funerals, that kind of prayer did him no good.  
  
"If there's really anyone up there. Please help me. I gotta' get in control of my emotions for the good of others. If I can't get control. Please help me to do what I must. But I really don't wanna' die. Thank You "  
  
Ranma spent the next four days praying, meditating and examining his life. He didn't like what he remembered. He decided it didn't matter too much if what he remembered was real or not. It was his life as he knew it and that was what counted. It didn't matter what anyone had intended what mattered was how he felt about it; how it had made him.  
  
Ranma decided he was a real patsy. He let Pop haul him around the world searching for new techniques, he let Akane hurt him, he let a lot of things happen to him. Why? Because he was too easy going for his own good. Oh, he was stubborn when he wanted to be and he could fight like a dragon but Ranma realized he was lazy just like Pop. He waited for things to happen instead of making them happen. If bad things happened it was his own fault. At least he wasn't blaming all his problems on anyone else. If he'd stood up to his Pop and stuck it out he'd never have gone to Jusyenkyo. Or gone to the agency. When he got that feeling in his gut he was listening from now on. Baka Ranma was dead.   
  
{I can get myself under control. It's going to take more time than I've allowed but I know that I can do it. I've gotten a handle on what I need to do and I can do it. At least I know that I'm not going to blow up. I can control that. All I need to do is get my friends to understand that there are just some things that they can't do just now or maybe not ever. I'm going home. Yeah ,Home to the Compound and Division 13. That's my place now. With Ryouga, Sunny, Leela, Shuba, Danny, Steven. My friends. My companions. My fellow solders. I feel so good.}  
  
Ranma cried, he whooped, he ran just to feel the wind in his hair. He knew that the pain was still there and always would be but he could cope with it now. He would talk to Ryouga and Steven. Sunny was a wonder; she would just accept him; as would the others. He wondered if Steven had gone through something like this and decided that everyone in a position like his had gone through something similar. He felt better that he had in years.  
  
Ranma packed up his stuff and headed back to the Compound.  
  
"Hhhhissssssst! Ranma! Come here son. I've come to rescue you."  
  
Ranma turned to the bushes. Putting down his pack he stood in Easy stance.  
  
"Go 'way, Pop."  
  
"Damn it, boy, I came to rescue you. Don't tell me you're so weak that they've already brainwashed you. Sissy."  
  
"No. I'm not brainwashed. You don't know what happened so don't judge me.  
  
Go 'way. Or I'll make you."  
  
Genma surged out of the bushes intent on getting Ranma into his hands.  
  
"Don't touch me. I don't like it." Ranma slapped Genma's hand away.  
  
Genma used the momentum of Ranmas slap to turn around and try a back handed strike. Ranma wasn't there. "Pop, give it up" Genma caught Ranma with a continuation kick to the head. Ranma rolled into a tree ending wrapped half around it. "Ow! That hurt!" Ranma stood up and set himself. He wasn't playing around now. He meant business and bad business at that.  
  
From a Horse stance Ranma punched Genma in the belly, 40 times. He decided to take it to whatever level Genma wanted; but he was starting out slow.   
  
"Is that all you've got, boy? Weakling!"  
  
Ranma used a dropping sweep kick to knock Genma off his feet. Genma tried to roll but Ranma drove his elbow into his chest. Genma felt a rib crack. Genma forced Ranma away, flinging him into the air. Ranma let himself fly into a tree; using the tree as a springboard he bounced back into Genma's face. Fist first.   
  
"Gotcha!"  
  
Genma staggered back, Ranma had never hit him that hard before. Genma launched an ariel attack but Ranma reached up and jerked him right out of the air.   
  
"Not gonna' go there, Pop."   
  
With a flip of this arm Ranma threw Genma into the trees, leaping after him Ranma bounced from limb to limb until he saw Genma waiting for him in a small clearing. Genma just motioned Ranma on.   
  
"Ok, Boy, if that's the way you want it to be I'll take you home unconscious." Genma threw a cross arm punch from the shoulder.  
  
"Listen to me. I'm stayin' here. Any more fightin' and you're gonna' get hurt. No more Mr. Nice Ranma. For the second time; Go 'way." Ranma blocked with a double cross fore arm guard; rolling his arms down he brought up a hand and grabbed for Genmas wrist.  
  
"Damn, Ranma. I'm trying to free you. The least you could do is cooperate." Genma pulled back, yanking Ranma towards him.  
  
"Free me? How free me? Free me to train till I drop? Work me till I can't see straight while you laze around in the shade?" Ranma punched Genma in the chest driving him back. "Free me to watch you eat the best food while I get left overs. 'I need my strength so I can train you, boy'." Ranma got enought room to bring his feet into play kicking Genma in the belly, diaphram and chest; the kicks looked like one blow. "Ha! I need my strength to put up with you. Even when there's plenty you still steal mine. And I'm stupid enough to fall for it. You had a real PD on me." Genma stagered back arms crossed acros his chest. "Give it a rest! I'm over it! " Ranma felt something building within him It felt.... mad?  
  
"Is that how you thank me for all the years I spent training you to be the best martial artist around? A man among men? You ungrateful pup. I can't...." Genma grabbed for Ranma again. "All I want to do is free you from the hateful bond of slavery" Genma tried coaxing. "Come now Ranma, m' boy. I made a simple mistake. I'm here to set it right."  
  
"Yeah, a simple mistake. But you've sold me before haven't you. Seems to me it was for ...correct me if I'm wrong...a fish, a bowl of rice, and two, count em, two pickles. Ya asshole!"  
  
"Watch your mouth boy." Genma was getting mad now. He didn't understand what was going on but he was taking Ranma back. Maybe then he could get off the hook with the police.  
  
Ranma produced the survival knife holding it along his arm with the blade turned towards Genma. Holding the handle loosely with his index finger on the pomel he waited.  
  
"A weapon, boy? Against your own father? I only sold you so we could eat and I always got you back. What's the harm? Put that up!"  
  
"Ok, I don't really need it but, you know, it gives me comfort. I like sharp things." Ranma's smile was cold. "Go away, Saotome,...for the third time."  
  
"I'm not going without you. I'll get you deprogrammed. You don't really want to stay here..a slave..foolish boy you really want to be free." Genma smiled ingratiatingly. His smile faded quickly.  
  
{Ranma felt the thing within him swelling. What was it?}   
  
"Let me tell you somethin'. I'd rather be a slave here than free with you. Your freedom is only an excuse to do what ya want when ya want. Your morals are damn convenient. Ya have no more responsibility than a butterfly in the wind. These people establish rules and expect everyone t' obey all the time, not just when it's convenient. And they don't invent new rules just so they can justify doin' what they want t'."  
  
"Listen up, Saotome"   
  
Time slowed, Ranma went into overdrive; were he had all the time he needed to analyze everything and make decisions.{Where the hell did that come from? Useful. I'll remember how to do this.}   
  
"I have no father. I am now an orphan."   
  
Ranma felt the ball of power before he saw it. It was just there in his hand, red and harsh and ready.  
  
"Aka Tora Tsume!!" The ball left his hand and hit Genma square in the chest exploding into a mass of shards.  
  
BLAM! Genma hit a cliff face. As he struggled to pull himself from the stone grip of the cliff, Ranma swept over the dividing terrain like a storm.  
  
"Saotome, get lost. I never wanna' see your stupid face again. Why don't you just turn yourself in. Maybe they'll have mercy on ya and shoot ya."  
  
Genma dropped to his feet, finally dragging himself out of the rock. "Ranma, m' boy where did you learn that attack?"  
  
"Damn it! Saotome. That's how good I am, I just made it up " Ranma pointed at Genma "Take a hint, The next one will probably kill you"   
  
Ranma went into overdrive again. {Where DID that come from?} He was so furious that he could barely contain himself. But the fury was fading fast, as if it had been....drained....off? {Oh, boy. All that fury I have is an awesome weapon! And I'm in control of it.}  
  
Ranma slowed down again. He slashed his hand to the side. "I have no family. You're all dead t' me. All you've ever done is try t' use me; Mom against you, You against Mom and against the world. I was just an excuse for ya t' avoid responsibility. No job for you. 'Have t' train the boy.' No home t' keep up. 'Have t' travel t' train.' Bull Shit! No responsibility for Genma's what it was. Well, no more! I've got responsibilities and I take them seriously. So take a hike. I'm turnin' my back on ya. If ya hit me ever again, I'll kill ya."  
  
Genma sneered, "Fancy speech, boy, but you can't kill me, you don't know how. You don't have the guts. You're too weak You couldn't stomach..."  
  
"Shut Up! I've already killed two men. They didn't do anythin' t' me and I killed 'em. What makes ya think I wouldn't have the guts t' kill you after all you've done t' me. It's your fault that I was in the arena in the first place."   
  
Ranma turned around giving Genma his back for real. Looking over his shoulder he snarled "Next time I see ya, you're the enemy. Get it? As far as I'm concerned you'll have stepped out of the shadows."  
  
Genma blinked. Somehow his son had been made to kill. And shadows? He turned and ran hoping Ranma wouldn't follow  
  
Ranma symbolically dusted his hands "Good riddance. I'm goin' home now. Bye, Ass-hole."  
  
One of the guards looked up into the hills. "Shit! Someone's in big trouble! See that cloud a' dust? Whoever it is is really runnin' all out and you know how the motor pool feels about abusin' the equipment. They'll ruin the suspension for sure."  
  
His buddy looked, too, and as they watched they both realized that it was a man running for real. On foot, but making about 20 miles an hour. "Call the Head, damn it. I think it's that boy Ran somethin'. We'll have t' try t' stop him, orders are orders; but I don't think that he's gonna pay much attention t' us."  
  
Ranma stoped at the gate. The guy waiving him down looked scared to death.  
  
"Hey, what's up? Can't I come in? I just came down off the mountain and I want to see Ryouga and Sunny. K?" Ranma dumped his pack on the ground "Here take care of this for me. I don't need it anymore. I think they want it back at the supply depot. Thanks!"   
  
Sunny saw Ranma from her window. It was Saturday and no classes so she had been just idly staring at the mountains wondering if Ranma was ever coming back. Running through the hall towards the gate she screamed, "Everybody, Ranma's back. Come on, he's at the gate"  
  
The whole pack of them headed for the gate at a dead run.  
  
Ryouga got there first of course. "Hey, Ranma, I was gettin' worried. I was gonna come up t' get ya soon. All that talk had me afraid you really meant t' do ...ah..what you said." Ryouga grabbed Ranma by the shoulders. He shook him gently. "Don't do that again. 'k?"  
  
Ranma looked at Ryouga "Hey, Ryu, when did you ever know me t' joke about somethin' as serious as suicide? But I'm cool now. Don't worry, I got enough of a handle on it that I won't need t' do anythin' like that."  
  
Sunny jumped on Ranma hugging him around the neck. As Ranma started to wrap his arms around her; Ryouga grabbed his wrist. "No, Ryu, I'm ok I saw her and I was expectin' this. Hey, Sunny, how's it goin'? I missed the hell out a' ya."   
  
Ranma looked at all his friends. They had gathered around him. They were touching him, patting his back and the girls were both hugging him.   
  
"Let's go t' Steven's office I need t' talk t' ya all and he needs t' get in on it, too, so I don't wanna repeat myself." Ranma looked them all over." Hey, don't look so down. I'm glad t' see all of ya. Damn glad. "  
  
Steven got them all in a small meeting room. Had tea and snacks brought in and turned the proceedings over to Ranma.   
  
"Ok, this is it. I need to set a few rules or someone is gonna' get hurt and it won't be me."  
  
"I'm in pretty bad shape still; so here it is."  
  
"Do not grab, smack, glomp or even touch me from behind; unexpectedly."  
  
"Do not wake me by touchin' me. Throw somethin' at me from the door. Somethin' soft I hope."  
  
"If I say run; you run, no arguments, no questions, just take off."  
  
"Sunny, you're my doctor. No one else touches me when I'm sick or injured with out your specific Ok. We'll do a check up soon so you know me better 'k?"  
  
"Ryouga is my shrink. I need t' work on some things. If he tells you t' do or not t' do somethin' he thinks will help just go with it."  
  
"Shuba, you, Danny and Leela are my friends, too, and I hope you'll put up with me being a head case until I can get it together and be the kind of friend you want."  
  
At this point Shuba, Danny and Leela nodded their heads. Sunny was smiling so happily that her eyes seemed to glow. Ryouga looked a little worried but nodded his agreement.   
  
"Steven, I'm sorry t' put ya through so much shit but I really need your help on a few things."  
  
"First, I need t' take all those tests I managed t' either fake or get out of. Then I need ya t' get those papers I heard about. The ones that make me a mancipa..somethin' minor. I disowned Saotome. I don't have parents anymore and I don't intend t' put up with a couple a' strangers interferin' with my life."  
  
"Also here, " Ranma took a small baggy out of his pocket. The bag contained several dried mushrooms. "I won't be needin' these."   
  
"Wow, dried Moku...here I'll use them" Shuba reached for the bag. Then he jerked his hand back as if it was burned. "Damn it! What are you doing with Death's Angels?"  
  
Sunny just looked at them for a moment and sighed. "Oh Ranma....no..you can't."  
  
Ranma frowned, "Said I didn't need 'em. Don't you listen?"  
  
Ryouga took the baggy and went to the door with it. "Here get rid a' this. It's poison so don't get any of it on your hands. And wash them after you burn this."  
  
Ranma took a few moments to pour tea so everyone could calm down. "I'm ok now. I know I'm not a danger t' anyone. Not really. Just as long as ya follow the rules I'll be fine and I'm gonna' get better; so I don't need those any more."  
  
Steven suddenly bent down then straightened up "Sorry. You know you've got a knife in your legging. You'll need to give me that. If you feel uncomfortable without it we've got problems."  
  
Ranma looked startled "Sorry 'bout that." He looked a little shame faced "I forgot all about it."  
  
Suddenly it was in his hand. No one, except Ryouga and maybe Steven even saw him draw it. It was just there. Big and sharp and shinny. "You know I'm beginnin' t' like sharp things. They make me feel safer."  
  
"I'll give it t' ya but I want it back when I leave the Compound."  
  
Ranma pulled the sheath from his legging and sheathed the length of steel.  
  
"Very nice, SP24 Survival. We just got them in. If you want to keep this specific knife I'll lock it up here. But you can get one issued to you any time you need one." Steven admired the knife as only a gladiator could.  
  
"I've modified the grips t' fit my hand. I'd like t' keep that one."  
  
Ranma felt a little uncomfortable without the knife. He wondered briefly, why; since he didn't use weapons as a general rule, but forgot about it when Sunny said softly, "Ranma, you wouldn't have hurt yourself would you?"   
  
She looked so unhappy that Ranma took her hand while he talked. He was also surprised when Leela cuddled up to him on the other side.  
  
"Yeah I woulda'. I'm too good a martial artist t' be runnin' around loosin' my temper over every little thing. I could destroy a city block without tryin' too hard. Ryouga knows how bad it could get. We pretty much destroyed a warehouse once. I won."   
  
Ryouga grinned at Ranma and shook his head. " I seem t' remember that it was pretty much a tie. But go on."   
  
"I'm also pretty quick t' heal so I'm not sure if I could do it with a knife; besides that's got t' hurt like crazy, so I was gonna' make some tea and just go t' sleep. But don't worry. I really don't wanna die. I like livin' a whole lot; so now I'm sure I'm not gonna' go postal on someone that's not an option I'm conciderin' anymore."  
  
"Hey, Ryouga stop blubberin'. All you guys. I'm back and we'll work through this mess together. That is if you're willin'?"  
  
Shuba stood up, "As coordinator for this strike group I feel I speak for all of us. We'll do what ever it takes just like you'd do for us. Oh, and if you ever take off like that again we'll hunt you down like a dog and tie you up. Ya little shit! "  
  
Everyone looked at Shuba, then Steven started to laugh. "I second the motion."  
  
The whole group began to laugh and laugh. Ryouga fell down and Leela landed on top of him. Danny and Shuba had to hold onto each other. Ranma rolled on the floor literally. Sunny tried to sit on a chair but missed it and landed beside Ranma. Steven sat on the edge of his desk and laughed till tears rolled down his cheeks.   
  
Lots of you probably hated this chapter but it carrys the story on.   
  
I'd like to say that suicide is never an option. If it is that bad get help. Go to someone, anyone you can trust and talk, scream, cry; whatever it takes. There is help out there you just have to reach out for it. 


	14. Chapter 15

Disclaimer here  
  
Genma 15  
  
The next days were full of activity. Ranma took all the tests he should have. And found out that he wasn't as far behind as everyone had assumed he was. He listened in class but got into trouble too much and had no patience for note taking. But he remembered most of what was said in class. Steven decided that Ranma should have tutoring to get him caught up.  
  
As for the physical tests. Ranma broke the punch pad, knocking it throught the concreat wall and into the field beyond. Every other test was a variant on the first. He either broke the equipment or was finally told to give it up because the examiners got tired of watching Ranma click off exercises like a machine or the computers overloaded.  
  
Ryouga watched for a while and then went to find Steven. "I told you Ranma held back. He's not stupid so I was sure he gave you enough to satisfy you but not all. He could have walked out of here any time. He stayed because he doesn't have any place to go where he's understood. He's lucky; hell, we're all lucky to find a place like this." Ryouga held up his hand shutting Steven up. "Yeah I know you're using us for your own purposes but is it really using if we know what you're doing? We all have special talents and using them for nothing is gonna get boring real quick; then ya have problems. We're all better off here. Aren't you?"  
  
Steven shrugged, he was just glad Ranma had finally gotten some kind of handle on his problems. Now they could help him work through them. Ranma was as proud as they came but he wasn't so proud that he would endanger others; he'd already proven that.  
  
Steven wondered what kind of disasters he'd have to deal with. He had three amazing martial artists on his hands, two extraordinary thieves and a powerful healer. All under twenty. {I'm way too old for this!}  
  
After taking a shower Ranma decided to go to the common room and see who was around. He nearly ran into the boy coming out of the room just down the hall from him.  
  
"Hey! Sorry! They'll get me for running in the ... Kuno! What the hell 're you doing here. I thought they locked you up." Ranma turned red; just because Kuno was a nut he didn't have to be cruel. "Uh damnit. Sorry I didn't mean that the way it came out."  
  
Kuno just looked at Ranma, rather sadly. "They did; lock me up I mean. They ran tests on me till I didn't think I had any blood left. I've got a brain chemical imbalance. Has a fancy name but all it means is my insanity is genetic."   
  
Kuno bowed deeply to Ranma, "Moshe Wake Arimasen."  
  
Ranma jumped back a few feet. "Hey! What...Warui is good enough." Ranma hopped back within two feet of Kuno. "Genetic brain chemical imbalance? I heard a' that in biology. So how come ya aren't spoutin' poetry an' tryin' t' kill me."  
  
"Because now that we know what is wrong. I take medication that keeps me sane. I'm also in therapy three times a week. It helps." Kuno eyed Ranma speculatively. "So do you want a rematch so you can flatten me again?"  
  
Ranma shook his head, "Kuno, I'll tell ya this once. I don't bear grudges. If ya have mental problems I'll cut ya slack. Come on let's go t' the common room and I'll introduce ya around. No, you first. I'll take a rain check on having ya behind me."  
  
"I heard something when I was here the last time. I didn't pay it too much attention because I..well never mind that. What is your story? If you don't mind me asking?" Kuno looked at Ranma sideways, Ranma had paled a little. "Don't talk if you don't want to."  
  
"Na. It's all right, Ryu says I need t' talk and if you're interested I'll tell ya. But you laugh and all bets are off. I'll pound ya inta the floor." Ranma forced himself to relax. He needed Kuno to know. He needed all his friends to know everything so they would understand and help him.  
  
Everybody was in the common room looking at Sunny's hair. This time it was yellow, not blond; yellow, like a canary.  
  
Sunny saw Ranma first, "EEEEKkkk!!! Ranma! I'm so glad to see you they have been testing you all day and I wanted to see you I wanted you to see my hair do you like it I think I don't maybe I'll change it again I might go fuschia what do you mmmpppppffff"  
  
Ranma gently but firmly put his hand over Sunny's mouth. "I don't like yellow either. I'm done testing. What the hell color is fush...what you said. Uhn, Everybody this is Tatiwaki Kuno. You might remember 'im."  
  
"MMMMmmmmmmMMMMM" Ranma took his hand off Sunny's mouth with a apologetic expression. "Ranma, next time you do that I'm going to lick your hand see if I don't what is he doing here I thought he was sent away for fighting you I'm not healing you if you get in to a fight with him and you if you pick on Ranma I'm going to..well I don't know what I'll do but you won't like it." Sunny stopped to take a breath, finally.  
  
"I apologize for any grief I may have caused you. Please forgive me." Kuno bowed to everyone in the room. Ranma sighed; Kuno really knew how to milk a bow for all it was worth.  
  
Ryouga rushed into the room just then. "I miss anything bloody. How is Kuno...Oh, you getting along all right? Ranma give Kuno a break and not..." at Ranma's look Ryouga ran down.  
  
"We're not gonna fight; at least outside the dojo. Kuno was just about t' explain what's going on with him, then it's your turn and then I get mine. After that it's up for grabs. Everyone needs t' know about everyone else and the grown-up's are stingy with information. They want us t' be a strike team and don't tell us shit. So, Kino start talking."  
  
So Kuno told his story, not leaving out much except somethings that he said the other people involved wouldn't appreciate getting out. He ended up, "So I'm much better now, I take a pill twice a day and I'm pretty much as normal as the rest of you. I'd appreciate you all watching me. If I forget my meds it could be bad. I have a watch with an alarm and I'm good at remembering but we all make mistakes. Now you know all." He looked at the faces around him. They all looked interested and friendly. {Maybe this will work out. I hope so, I can't go back to the way things were.}  
  
"Good, Kuno Very interesting. Can ya tell us anything about Kodachi?" Ryouga took over the impromptu meeting easily.  
  
"She's not responding to medication. Anything that works knocks her out. I'm afraid she will always need 'special servants' She's at home, and likely to stay there."  
  
Kuno looked sad for a moment but shook it off rapidly "Now it's someone else's turn to tell all."  
  
"Oh...oh...me..me.. I'm Sun Yao but everyone calls me Sunny I'm a healer I come from china my mother is a healer and my dad is a coordinator like Shuba and I like chick flicks popcorn shopping and I don't like mean people monsters and ....." Sunny talked for ten minutes while everyone got glassy eyed. "And that's all now it's someone else's turn Shuba you're next"  
  
"Whoof, Sunny take a breath. Ok, My name is Shuba. I come from England. I'm a coordinator. I'm the one who is supposed to figure out what's coming and where it's coming from.Then I'm suppose to be mission control but I think it's all crap. We need to rely on each other but that's neither here or there. I've lead a pretty uneventful life except for being a past grand master at chess. I've won so many titles and tournaments that I had to retire at 14. I'm also a computer hacker of some skill and; well, it's nothing worth talking about. I'm white bread compared to you all. Let's move on." Shuba was practically squirming in his chair and looking very embarrassed. Ranma and Ryouga walked on each other trying to move the attention on.  
  
"Ryouga. You run this. I'll just sit here till it's my turn."  
  
Ranma leaned back in the chair and stretched his feet out in front of him; unintentionally kicking Sunny. "Damn, Sunny I'm sorry. Are you all right? Why are you sitting on the floor? There're plenty of chairs. Here sit next to me on this couch."  
  
Sunny scrambled up and plopped onto the couch next to Ranma. Tucking her feet to the side she put her head on the arm of the couch and sighed.  
  
"Next let's hear from Leela and Danny. What's up with you two?"  
  
"We're twins; as if you couldn't tell. We broke the habit of switching in the middle of sentences a long time ago. Ram-Sham-Bo!" Leela and Danny played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would talk. "Yay for me." Danny smiled "Be glad I won. Leela talks almost as much as Sunny."  
  
Every one groaned.  
  
Danny told the same sad tale as many other foster children told. Too many homes too many failures; life on the streets and all the other clichés but ended up. "And then I tried to pick Steven's pocket. Never saw anyone laugh when they caught me...well he's the only one who ever did. But he brought us here and we've been here ever since. It's fantastic. We get to steal stuff and don't get in trouble and the equipment we get to have is just the best. So now you know. Oh, and by the way we don't steal here. If we need something we get it from supply, we don't steal from friends. Ok? Just so you know."  
  
Ryouga cleared his throat, "I guess I'm next. I'm the Eternal Lost Boy. My sense of direction doesn't exist; I've spent most of my life wandering around trying to get where I want to be. I've lived hand to mouth doing odd jobs for food and a bed; ya grow up real fast that way. My family is well off but I can't access money if I can't find a bank or ATM."  
  
"About a year ago, after one of my fights with Ranma; I realized that I wasn't going any where with my life. So I managed to get home. I stayed there, literally locking myself in until I completed my education online, home school in my case was the only way.   
  
"Then with a little help from Nabiki Tendo I fudged my records so I'm 21. I doubled and tripled up on classes and finished my degree in no time. I tested out of a lot of general education courses and just plain skipped some. You'd be amazed what you can get away with if you know a hacker like Nabiki. She's expensive but really good."  
  
"I did a residency at Osaka National and got my papers. I'm really too young to be doing this but kids younger than me don't trust old guys so ...Well, I guess that's about it. Oh, and I'm still pretty much of a wild man when I fight so don't get cocky Ranma."  
  
"Ranma, when you're ready; you can start."  
  
Ranma was sitting cross legged with his head in his hands; rocking slightly he moaned, "I don' wanna do this. You'll all think I'm some kinda' idiot. I shoulda' known Pop was up t' somthin' stupid. I just..." Sunny switched her legs to the other side and tentatively took Ranmas hand in hers.   
  
"If you really don't want to do this we can wait. You don't have to tell all now. We'll understand won't we?" Sunny gave the others a dirty look as if daring them to disagree.  
  
"Certainly; if he can't bring himself to..." Kuno started.  
  
"Naw! Ranma can't chicken out. Everyone has spilled their guts. Don't let him back out now or we'll never get him t' spill." Ryouga wasn't about to let Ranma back out. Everyone knew some of what happened but not all and Ranma needed desperately to get it out. "It's a challenge, Ranma. Ya never turn down a challenge. Do ya?"   
  
"No I don't and ya know how much trouble I get into 'cause a' that; but here goes. You're not gonna like most...no all a' this but..."  
  
Ranma started talking. He gave a brief summary of his childhood and ended up with his fiancee troubles. "It seems every time Pop wanted somethin' from someone he'd affiance me to their daughter. But I told Steven that Akane is my only real fiancee and I meant it. She's the only one I agreed to so she's real and the others are just deluded."  
  
"But I suppose the thing you're really interested in is how I got t' be a slave. Stupid panda father..."  
  
Ranma started out at the Chain Child Agency and went through everything; holding Sunny's hand and talking to the floor.When he got to the part where the slavers started starving him Kuno snarled "Foul villains!" then snapped his mouth shut. Telling about having to eat off the floor made Leela run for the bathroom, he waited patiently while Ryouga went to take care of her.  
  
Ryouga came out and sat down with Leela in his lap. "Go on Ranma you can't stop now. I hate cliff hangers." Leela hid her head in Ryouga's shoulder.  
  
"I'm sorry Ranma; it just made me sick somehow. Go on, I'll try not to be stupid again."  
  
By now Ranma was hunched up into a ball; sitting with his feet in the seat of the couch, arms hugging his shins, head on his knees. Sunny had a death grip on his left hand and was leaning against his right side almost as if she was trying to give him her courage, as if he didn't have enough of his own.  
  
When he finally finished he raised his head looking around as if he had forgotten everyone was there. "So now ya know the worst. I'm a murder and I didn't mean it. I just wanted t' stay alive. I feel horrible but it's done and I can't undo it. So now what?"  
  
Ranma waited for them to turn away in disgust; but no one did. They all seemed to close up around him like a warm fuzzy blanket. Kuno slipped behind him making sure he saw what he was doing. He began to rub Ranmas back. Leela got on the other side of him making him scoot into Sunny and Danny and Shuba both squatted in front of him. The looks of concern on their faces nearly undid Ranma.They didn't look as if they were mad or disgusted at all.  
  
"I speak for all of us when I say you only did what you had to to survive. I don't hold it against you. No one does. Those men would have killed you if they could have. I'd rather have you alive than some stranger. We need you Ranma. If you'll trust us like we trust you we can all work it out."   
  
Ryouga rubbed his eyes, he didn't want Ranma to think he was pitying him. That would rub Ranmas' pride the wrong way.  
  
Sunny sniffled, Danny and Shuba both surreptitiously wiped their eyes. Leela unashamedly wiped her wet face on her sleeve. "Damnit Leela if you're gonna be a waterin' pot; use a tissue. That's just nasty." Ranma eyed her and made a face. "Yuck!"  
  
"Hey Kuno, I'll give ya about a year t' quit that. My shoulders have been tight since I got started here." Ranma relaxed into Kuno's hands. "All those tests and then this. MMMMMmmm.......... hey! Don't think I'm a perv 're nothin'" Ranma pulled away.  
  
A few minutes later a proctor stuck his head in the door and announced that lights out was only five minutes away.  
  
"Ranma, you big dummy!"   
  
Ranma ducked. "Huh? What'd I do now." Ranma peeked around the door at Sunny, she was looking at his reflection in the mirror.  
  
"You can't go out with out a bra on. Damnit, you've got stuff showing through. It makes you look.....loose. Or should I be calling you Ranko?" Sunny crossed her arms and shook her head at Ranko. She was dressed in a pair of Chinese pants and a loose tee shirt.  
  
"You have to have some better clothes than that. You look like a street walker in the bad part of town"  
  
Ranko just shrugged. "Fuck, this's all I've got. I didn't get here with anythin' and the slop chest is pretty sparse with anythin' that fits me. I need t' get some clothes as Ranma too... so. Ack!!"  
  
Sunny had slipped into the bathroom and come out with a washcloth which she proceeded to stuff into Ranko's mouth. Ranko spat it out and sputtered as she realized the cloth was soapy.  
  
"What'd ja do that for?" Ranko took off her necklace and changed to Ranma. After adjusting the bracelet he glared at Sunny.  
  
"Dirty mouths get washed. You can't go around talking like that especially as a girl; it isn't lady like. I don't mind Damn and Shit but that word is just too much." Sunny was in healer mode and that got Ranmas attention.   
  
"I'm sorry. I'll try t' watch it; but if I get upset I'm makin' no promises. Don't be mad 'k?" Ranma felt bad, he really liked Sunny and didn't want her mad at him. "I'll make it up t' you. Tell me what I can do and I'll do it."  
  
Sunny got a speculative look in her eye. Ranma had a sneaking suspicion he was going to regret his promise.  
  
"Anything? You can't really back out you know; you promised and Ryouga says you always keep your promises."   
  
"Sunny! My turn! I promised, anything. Just be realistic 'k? So, Ok do your worst." Ranma spread his arms wide as if expecting a punch or something.  
  
Sunny jumped up and down clapping her hands and squealing happily. "Yay... Leela come on. Ranma be Ranko. We're going shopping with Ranko, she's coming too!!"  
  
Ranma let his head drop to his chest, his shoulders slumped over, he rolled his eyes and groaned exaggeratedly, "Oh, man! What've I gotten myself into? Someone just shoot me now. Put me outa' my misery...eeeppp!"   
  
Sunny put her hand over Ranmas mouth. "Be Ranko! Come on; Leela's waiting. The van won't wait forever and those stupid boys will be whining."  
  
The van was waiting out side the door of the dormitory. It was only an hour drive to the nearest town. Ranko missed the name because she was arguing with Shuba about how a tactical strike should be organized.  
  
"Look, I'll tell you again. It's easy t' get guys t' give you extra. All ya gotta do is what I call the Wiggle n' Giggle. Course it helps if ya got somthin on top....eek. No hittin'... no hittin'!"  
  
Ranko ducked as both girls mock threatened her. Ranko had been making her way through the food court like an army of ants. Every booth had to be examined, commented on and sampled. Sunny and Leela were amazed at the amount of food Ranko could put away, she was now working on her second ice cream.  
  
"I didn't get nearly as much ice cream as you did. How did you get that guy to give you double scoops?"  
  
Ranko took the waffle cone and went back to the ice cream cart. "Excuse me!" Ranko put one hand behind her back, which thrust her breasts practically into the face of the goggling vendor. Then she giggled. "I hate t' be a pest but ya forgot part a' my friends' ice cream." The vendor nearly tripped over his own feet as he scrambled to get Ranko what she wanted. Ranko giggled, fluttered her eyelashes and accepted the offered treat with a little bounce that got the attention of every man and boy with in ten feet. "OOOOOooo. Thank you soo much."  
  
Ranko brought the cone back to Leela. "Why, Ranko you slut. I've never seen so blatant a flirt fest in my life. How do you do that? How do you know what to do?"  
  
Ranko sneered, "I'm a guy. I just do whatever I'd like a girl t'. It really works. And I'm not a slut. All they get is what they can see; no touching allowed."  
  
Sunny and Leela both cracked up completely.   
  
"Ranko if you keep sticking those girls of yours in a guys' face you'll get a bad reputation no matter what you really do. And if you don't hitch them up....well, all I'll say is it's gross. We've gotta get shopping if we're gonna get anything done. Oh. and as a guy...you're a complete perv."  
  
They spent an hour walking around the mall looking in windows and trying to figure out what Ranko should shop for. Sunny was holding out for sundresses and sandals; Leela was determined to get Ranko into Victoria's Secret and get some decent underwear. Ranko wanted to go back to the food court.  
  
Leela won out when Ranko got a good look at herself in a mirror. "Yikes, I do look slutty. I wouldn't want my sister t' look like that. so V.S. it is." Ranko stopped dead in the middle of the mall. "I don't know what t' do. I've never even been in a bra store before."  
  
Leela pushed Ranko in the door with help from Sunny. "Don't do anything. Just let the clerk take over. Look at the stuff she show's you and point to what you want. Don't worry about money. Steven gave me a debit card to use. I don't think we'll run out of money but I'll keep an eye on the balance. Come on like a good girl!"  
  
"How may I be of assistance?" The clerk stopped, blinked and smiled. "Let me get my tape."  
  
"Tape? I don't want to be taped. Do I? That's gotta hurt." Ranko was even more doubtful now than ever. When the clerk came up with a tape measure Ranko visibly relaxed, her scowl fading.  
  
Poking Sunny in the ribs with a finger Ranko whispered, "I'll get you later." Sunny just giggled.  
  
The clerk lead all three girls to a back room with several cubicles behind curtains. "Here we go Miss. Just raise your arms and I'll take a quick measurement and we can get started."   
  
After measuring Ranko the clerk rechecked the figures. "Well, I am glad you decided to ..er..um. Here this should help relieve your back ache. We've also got some nice lace numbers that I think you'll like. Why don't you take off your pretty necklace? It might get pulled off."  
  
"Oh! No, thank you. It's pretty valuable and I don't wanna take a chance with it." Ranko smiled at the clerk and to distract her pointed to a bra. "I'll wear that one out if ya don't mind."  
  
Leela and Sunny both groaned. Ranko had picked a blue lacy number, but she was wearing a white shirt. "Baka Ranko!" Ranko flinched. "Hey! Sorry! But you can't wear a dark bra under a white shirt. It'll show through. Here, we'll pick some bra and panty sets while you put this one on. The lady will help you."  
  
Ranko started to pull her shirt off right in the open area. "Miss, if you'll step behind a curtain."  
  
"Why, it's just us girls and they've already seen me." Ranko scowled again and continued pulling off the shirt.  
  
The clerk just shrugged, helped Ranko adjust the bra and get it on, fingering the necklace gently. "It's very pretty. Family heirloom?"  
  
Ranko eyed the clerk oddly. Pulling away she shrugged petulantly "Yeah, quit touchin' me!"  
  
Leela and Sunny each picked a set that they liked and some plain white stuff, also a slip and some stockings. "We better see that he has everything he'll need because he won't know; and we don't need to try to haul him in here again anytime soon."   
  
Both girls giggled at the thought of Ranko in Victoria's Secret again. "That poor clerk. I thought her eyes would bug out of her head. He's got a real pair and no mistake. Damnit, I'm getting confused again."  
  
Ranko lead the way to the next store. "I need some girl clothes. But not too many. I won't be using them too much so I just need like a pair of shorts, a pair of jeans and a few tops; maybe a dress or two. I don't want to waste too much money on girl clothes. They'll be out of style too soon."   
  
Ranma showed that he had been listening to Akane and her sisters when they talked fashions. He'd listened to a lot of things that no one would have expected.  
  
Leela poked Sunny who was standing stock still with her mouth half open. "You're gonna start drooling in a minute. He's smarter than you think."  
  
"Huh! I'm not ..Oh...Well Oh, Shit. Damnit! Here come the guys. We'll never get Ranko to that store now. He'll.. I mean, She'll bull up" Sunny looked mad and her usual run on style dried up.  
  
But Ranko surprised everyone. "Hey! Guys, I'm getting some clothes in this store. Want t' come in and help me pick?"   
  
Ranma knew that if the other guys were in the store with them he had a better chance of getting out without having to try on everything in the store. He planed exactly what he wanted and didn't want the girls to nag him into more. Strategy was one of his strong points after all.  
  
In the store Ranko took over like a commando. "I got this all planed. While I was in that other store I asked the lady what size I am. So here's what I want ya t' do. Everyone; here are the sizes. Sunny, you and Leela find me some tops. Shuba find a dress. Danny, you Ryouga and I'll try t' find a pair a' jeans and a pair a' shorts that fit. Ok; everybody have their assignments? Go."   
  
After everybody took off with a few odd looks aimed at Ranma he turned to Ryouga. "Where is Kuno-kun? I thought he was goin' shoppin' too."  
  
"He's at his therapists right now. He'll join us at the food court for lunch. In about an hour and a half. You up to what I think you are?"  
  
"Yeah. We need t' be a team and they need t' learn t' obey me without questionin'. I'll always tell 'em everythin' I know; not like some a' these other guys but when I say jump they may not have time t' question me; so they need t' learn t' jump now; ask later." Ranma made a face. He didn't like being the one in charge of the others but he was the only one who would do it right.  
  
Ranko led the way to a rack of jeans and shorts. "Here! I like these. And these; here's a pair a' jeans and that's all I'm gettin'. I don't need much as a girl. Yeah; I know it should be the other way around but I intend t' spend as little time as possible as a girl. Oh! Wait I better get some sweats that'll fit both of us."  
  
As all the teens gathered at the fitting rooms Ranma sorted through the tops that Leela and Sunny had picked. "Who picked pink. With this red hair ..pink?.... I don't like this; it's too frilly..... and this is just obscene. I'd be falling out top and bottom. It might fit you Sunny but I'm to big...Hey!" Sunny just looked hurt and almost like she was going to cry. "What's the matter? I didn't mean t' hurt your feelin's. What'd I say?"  
  
"You think I'm too small. I know I don't have much up top but you don't have to rub it in.' Sunny sniffled. "That's just mean and I don't like being a stick Mom says I'll get...."  
  
Ranko put her hand over Sunny's mouth, again. It was the only way to get Miss Everready Bunny to slow down enough to get a word in. " Don't cry. Please, don't. I'm just a klutz. I meant I'm too big. I got hooters the size of .. I don't know what. You're just about right. Ya wanna hit me? Go ahead, gimme a good smack I c'n take it. I'd rather take a beatn' than make ya cry." Ranko switched to Ranma and put his arms around Sunny she let her head rest on his shoulder for a minute then pulled back.   
  
"You'd better change back. It looks weird for a guy to have on a bra." Sunny giggled wetly as Ranma quickly changed back. His face was so red that you could light a candle off it.  
  
"Damnit. I'd better try on some a' this stuff and get us out a' here. We need t' be at the food court in twenty minutes. On second thought.... I'll just buy all this. Someone will wear it. That'll get us out of here in time." Ranma made up his mind. "I'll have time t' make up my mind later without holding up operations now."  
  
Ranko slipped into the nearest changing room and took off the bra, changed into Ranma and rejoined the group; Leela had taken care of paying and getting everything bagged up.  
  
Vignette  
  
"You should have seen all the girls underwear that little weirdo bought." The van driver snickered to several of his buddies. "And I know it wasn't for the girls because there was too much and that Sunny fussed at him for not getting something. I still don't know where his sister went off to; one minute she's there and the next he's there. Really strange. But that whole bunch is."  
  
"Yeah, I didn't sign up with this outfit to baby sit a bunch of snot nosed kids. I sighed up for some action." The speaker fondled his Glock idly.  
  
After taking all the packages out to the van; Leela and Sunny had done their share of shopping too, all the teens met in the food court to look for Kuno who was found sitting by a fountain holding a table for them  
  
"Hello, I held a table. I hope that was appropriate? Sit down. Ranma, My therapist has said I must ask you a question. This is very embarrassing but I really need to know. How are you related to the pig-tailed girl."  
  
Ranma choked on the soda he was drinking. "Damnit, Tatiwaki. I thought I explained that the other day when we had that tell-all. Or did I just say I got cursed? I don't remember. I was concentratin' on more important things; like murder. So I forget."  
  
Ranma eyed Tatiwaki then pulled his que. "Tell me what ya need t' know so I'll know where t' start"  
  
Kuno frowned his eyebrows drawing together. "Nabiki told me that you own the girl; body and soul. Sounds like white slavery to me. That's why I got it into my head that she needs rescuing. So start there."  
  
"'k, I'm the girl. I got a Jushyenko curse and I turn into a girl. Use t' be when I got splashed with cold water; I'd turn back with hot. But now it's controlled by this bracelet. Sunny can explain all the details but all I have t' do it this." Ranma took off the bracelet and touched it to his neck. "Now ya see. I tried t' explain it t' ya several times before but it never seemed t' take."  
  
Kuno blinked, watched as Ranma made the change a few more times and gulped. "If you ever tell that one thing; I'll never forgive you."  
  
"What ..oh..that..my lips are sealed." Ranma didn't want anyone to know that Kuno had kissed him either. It was just too embarrassing. "Tatiwaki..."  
  
"Please don't call me that! I hate my name! It sounds like ducks quacking."  
  
Sidetracked from asking about that 'one thing'; everybody started to laugh.  
  
Kuno looked at Ranma, "Weren't you going to get some clothes for Ranma as well?"  
  
"Yeah but I think we're just out a' time, the van is leaving in a hour and I want t' go back t' the food court again."  
  
"Let me take care of this. I know a store that has catered to my family for years. They'll take care of us quickly. Leave it to me." Kuno headed off into the mall with the group behind him.  
  
"How may I help you Kuno-sama?" The clerk practically groveled.  
  
"My friend needs some clothes. A complete wardrobe appropriate for a high school senior. A brown suit I believe or maybe dark charcoal grey." Kuno began to consult with the head clerk.  
  
"Hey wha'ca think you're doin'. Watch your hands." Ranma jumped as the a junior clerk dropped to his knees and tried to measure his inseam.  
  
"I'm sorry I startled you, young sir. I need to measure you. So your pants will be the right length?" The clerk was used to the fact that some men were 'goosie'.  
  
"Oh, sorry." Ranma looked a Ryouga, glad to see that he'd been ready to stop him if he over reacted.  
  
The clerk plyed his tape quickly and soon the clothes were piling up on the counter. Pants, jeans, shirts; tee shirts and polo; a casual suit jacket and a suit; all piled onto the counter.  
  
Kuno looked everything over and added underwear and sox, "You wear pajamas? No. Ok that should be all he needs. Ring it up. We're in a hury. Anything that dosn't suit will be returned within thirty days."  
  
Ranma eyed the pile of clothes but decided not to start; he wanted Kuno to feel as if he was trusted. And Ranma decided that the ever growing wardrobe he had was a good thing. He'd never had so many clothes in his life.   
  
"Ok, one more trip through the food court and we can go home."  
  
"Ranma! No more snacks. You'll get sick."  
  
"Who me? I never get sick! I've never had enough money t' get all I want before. I always leave wanting something else. Come on; just one more round." Ranma wheedled like a three year old.  
  
Between one thing and another Ranma forgot about two things; one easily taken care of and the other would turn out to cause trouble.

"Uuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm! It hurts...damn. ow! SSShhhiiiitttttt!" Ranma curled up into as small a ball as he could manage. His stomach ached, a lot. "I don't get sick. I don't have a bellyache. It'll go 'way." Ranma conveniently forgot the stomachaches Akane's cooking had given him. Ranma tried to curl tighter. "OOww!! I've been poisoned, that's it. I ate something bad. uuunnn!"  
  
Sunny popped her head in the door. "Ranma, what are you doing it's getting close to supper and .... What's the matter? Ranma are you sick? " Sunny went from dither head to healer in two words.  
  
Sunny shouted for the only other person in the dormitory. "Kuno-kun, get in here. Now! Ranma's sick. Hurry!"  
  
Kuno hurried into Ranma's room to see what Sunny was shouting about. He'd been wondering if he should check on Ranma for the last two or three minutes. The quiet whimpering noises had begun to worry him.  
  
"What's wrong? What can I do?" Kuno gapped, elegantly, at Ranma. He had never seen him act like this. He was really in pain, he was pale, sweating and curled in on himself like a sick pup.  
  
"Go 'way. I'll be ok in a minute. If my belly would settle down I'd be fine. UUUnnnn.Go 'way!"  
  
Ranma was in no mood to be subtle. All he wanted was privacy so he could hole up until he felt better.But Sunny was having none of that foolishness. "Ranma, I'll be back in a minute. I've got something that will fix you up in no time." Sunny returned almost immediately with a brown bottle and a large spoon.  
  
"NNNOOOOO!!! I won't take it. I know what that crap is it tastes like mint and ginger and turpentine and it's disgustin' and I won't take it." Sunny poured the spoon full and tried to get Ranma to swallow it. He closed his lips tightly shaking his head.   
  
When Sunny took the spoon away he started complaining. "My belly hurts. Damnit I feel like I've been poisoned. What did I eat that was bad? Go 'way. It'll stop soon."  
  
Kuno eyed Ranma in distaste. "Not a very good patient is he. But that's like many strong men. They don't get sick often enough to know how to act. Here, you hold him up and Ill get the medicine in him. How much should he take?"  
  
Sunny grappled with Ranma who wasn't about to cooperate. "He has to take three spoons full. Ranma stop that you'll hurt me. Take the damn medicine will you." Sunny finally got her arms around Ranma but that was it; she couldn't get any leverage on him, he was curled up tight.  
  
"Kuno if you think I'm going to take that stuff you're really crazy. Sunny get offa' me." Ranma scooted into the corner of his bed. His bed was pushed into the corner of his room so that protected two sides and with his legs pulled up he was turtled up good. "Not a fucking chance in hell I'm gonna take that foul tastin shit Hhhhuunn! If it'd stop for a minute."  
  
Ryouga heard Ranma swearing; he'd been in the small arcade across the square from the Dormitory, all the others had stayed but he was bored and wanted to read. So here he was running toward the dorm with his heart in his throat.  
  
"What the hell is going on here?" Ryouga saw Sunny leaning across Ranma's bed reaching for a curled up Ranma with Kuno standing by; a bottle and large spoon in his hands.   
  
"Ranma has a stomach ache and won't take the medicine." Sunny finally got hold of Ranma. " Ranma if you don't take medicine you won't get better! Don't be such a baby."  
  
Ranma was sick and getting sicker; he was finally nauseous, his stomach rolling and clenching.   
  
"Sunny, move! Now!" Ryouga grabbed Sunny and pulled her out of the way as Ranma heaved then ran for the bathroom. The sounds that came from the room told their own tale.  
  
"Ranma you still need to take this. Ryouga, Kuno; hold him. I intend for him to take this if I have to hold his nose." Sunny, in full healer mode now; wasn't taking any foolishness from Ranma no matter what.  
  
"I'm not taking that fucking shit no matter what you do. It smells like moldy hay and rotten turnips. It's the crap Pop used to feed me when Akane made me sick. I don' wan'a! Can't make me!"  
  
Kuno eyed Ranma askance, he'd never known Ranma to be so childish. Rude, arrogant and impatient; but childish, no. "Ranma! What's really wrong? Why are you so set against taking medicine that will help you? Talk to us."  
  
"It smells like the stables. I can't take it! Please don't make me." Ranma capitulated breaking into a sweat. "NO! I just can't! I can't stand the smell. Please don't try t' make me."  
  
Sunny looked blank there weren't any stables any where around. "Ranma you've got to take it. You won't get better if you don't. You'll keep yourself and everyone else awake all night moaning like a ghost. There's no reason for you to suffer like this. Take the damn stuff. Come on.!" Sunny poked the spoon at Ranma.   
  
Ranma slapped the spoon liquid and all out of Sunny's hand, spattering the brown fluid over her face and shirt. Then the smell really hit him. He turned completely white and slithered down the wall into a fetal position, shivering and moaning "NO I can't stand the smell! Go away! Get away from me! It's too much."   
  
Ranma gagged and choked.  
  
Ryouga finally realized what Ranma ment by 'it smells like the stables'. "Sunny get away from him.The medicine smells like the slave stables. He can't take it. Go wash and change your shirt. Find something else for him to take."  
  
Kuno reached down and literally scooped Ranma off the floor, two steps put him back at Ranma's bed. He dumped Ranma on the bed with a bounce. Grabbing him before he could get away Kuno pined Ranma to the bed using his body weight and the leverage provided by his longer limbs to hold him down long enough to hiss, "Ranma stop making a scene. It's not gentlemanly. Sunny is trying to help you and you ...you're acting like a child. Stop whining! I saw what you ate at the mall. No wonder you're sick. Shut up and behave."  
  
Ranma gagged again but managed to pull himself together some. "I can't...I won't...you don't understand."  
  
Ryouga helped Kuno hold Ranma; he was too strong for either of them to do it alone so they ganged up on him shamelessly.   
  
Ryouga tried his hand at getting through to him. "Ranma, if you're sick you need to take something. We won't make you take that stuff if you really can't do it. But you've got to stop this. You're going to loose control in a minute and you know that's bad. Calm down! Sunny won't make you take it. I promise."  
  
Ranma stiffened; he was loosing control of his emotions. Quickly he calmed himself as best he could."Ryouga, maybe you better keep hold of me. I'm uuuuunnnnn ow that hurts" Ranma doubled over again.   
  
Sunny came back in with a different bottle. "Here, Ranma, smell this."  
  
Ranma sniffed suspiciously at the bottle. "That shit's no better than the other, at least it doesn't smell like ...You know. But I ain't takin it either. Ya can't make me. I ain't gonna do it." Ranma clenched his teeth, he was out of control of the situation but he was going to control what went into his body. Or so he thought.  
  
"Ryouga, what the hell is going on in here. You can hear Sunny and Ranma yelling clear in my office." Steven looked like an oni. He had a bruise on his cheek and a cut on his forehead. He looked tired and limped slightly as he crossed the room to Ranma's bed side. "I am defiantly not in the mood for a couple of brats yelling down the school building at this time of day."  
  
The quick babble of explanation was interrupted by Ranma moaning again. "Damnit what's wrong with Ranma? Why is he acting like a poisoned dog. Give him some medicine." Steven looked at Sunny with a sour expression. "Some Doctor you are can't even get a guy to take his medicine like a man." Steven winked at Sunny with his off eye (the one Ranma couldn't see)   
  
"I'm sorry Steven. He won't take it. He's just got a belly ache from too many sweets but you'd think he had a deadly disease the way he's acting."  
  
Sunny looked like she was going to cry, "I'm not a very good Doctor I guess; he won't even take one spoon full and he needs three. He's not very disciplined."  
  
Ryouga's eyes met Kuno's; neither one could contain some sort of smile behind Ranma's back. They had him now.  
  
Ranma straightened up from his half doubled over position; he pulled his arms out of their grip and flopped onto his back. "Ok! I'll take the damn medicine even if it kills me."  
  
Sunny poured the first spoon full. Holding it out she snapped 'Sit up baby; you'll choke on it in that position."  
  
Ranma sat up and opened his mouth slightly. Sunny stuck the spoon between his lips and dumped the liquid in his mouth. Ranma's expression never changed, his eyes just widened a little. Sunny emboldened by this poured the second spoon and stuck the spoon into Ranma's mouth farther. He swallowed the medicine but he bit the bowl of the spoon in half. Spitting out the half of the spoon he growled. "Now make me take any more of that crap. I dare you."  
  
Now Sunny was a good girl; kind, patient and everything else a healer should be including manipulative, sneaky, sly and determined to see to it that her patients got better even if they decided to be stubborn. She took totally unfair advantage. "Ok Ranma, that's all right don't take your medicine like you should I guess I'm just not good enough a healer to get you to do what's good for you. I'll tell Mom you want her to be your healer tomorrow." Sunny hid her face in her hands and stifled a small sob. She followed that with a wet little sniffle. "I'll just go away and get Mom to come..." She turned and started for the door.  
  
"No, Sunny don't...I'm sorry.. I'll take the shit. Here, see?" Ranma took a gulp from the bottle. Shuddering he say back on his bed. "Shit! get off a' the bed. What is this gang up on Ranma day?"   
  
Ryouga and Kuno vacated Ranmas' personal space quickly.   
  
Steven grimaced. "I don't expect any more noise from this dorm tonight. Do I make myself clear. {Damnit I'm way too tired for this shit} Ranma, I want to know what you ate that made you sick. We'll see to it that the vendor cleans up his....What?" Steve looked at the amused expressions on three of the four teens.  
  
"Go out side and tell Steven what this is all about. I'll stay here with Baby Ranma. Git!" Sunny shooed them out.  
  
"Ok what's going on." Steven was really wanting to sit down.   
  
Here' sit down before you fall down." Kuno turned an easy chair around for Steven. After positioning chairs around a table. Kuno got some bottled juices and handed then around. "All I know is Ranma has a stomach acke and won't take medicine for it."  
  
Ryouga was stifling laughter, "Ranma ate himself sick at the mall. He ate...let's see...Four double dip ice cream cones with whipped cream and extra sprinkles, two suckers (big ones), cotton candy, hot dogs with chili, bean cakes, sweet rice cakes, sponge cake with carmel sauce, pocky ,curry bread, shrimp paste dumplings, and I forget what else."  
  
Both Steven and Kuno were staring at him with wide eyes.  
  
"What? I ate almost as much, but I have always had pocket money; when I could find a bank; so I'm use to it. Ranma isn't. He's always only been able to have two or three things; so he went overboard. It's partially my fault. If I'd realized I wouldn't have let him eat so much."  
  
"As for refusing medicine. It's Ranma; stubborn, won't admit any weakness. If he'd gone to Sunny sooner it wouldn't have happened at all. Well, better check on the big baby. You go on home Steven you look ready to drop. I hope you're going to tell us what whipped your ass soon." Ryouga gave Steven a look that said plainly 'don't think Ranma is going to let this slide'.   
  
Ryouga went to check on Ranma and Sunny. Peeking in the door he saw Sunny kneeling by the bed. Ranma was flat on his back with his shirt off; Sunny had her hand on Ranmas stomach, she was rubbing it in small soothing circles. Ranma was half asleep, eye lids fluttering. Ryouga slipped away with a small, sly smile on his lips.Oh, wow, the chapter from the black lagoon.   
  
I had an obscene amount of free time the last two days. Everyone else went away. I stayed home, whole house to myself. Yay me! Jumps around and plops on couch ( Ugs! stupid, dusty couch) so I wrote this all in one big bunch and thought I'd divide it up later but every time I try my computer tries to eat it; so here it is, take small bites, chew thoroughly, don't choke on it. Wheee! [ too much coffee too much suger 4 a.m. silly me I'm going to bed now.]  
  
Authors notes (made later) As for Ranma being a big baby when he's sick. My Dad is a war vet with a medal. He's even worse than Ranma. Acts like he's dying when he gets the flu. Me I'm a littly bitty thing and all I want to do is be left alone. Daddy you have stay right with.   
  
Done babbling now. Please RR Thank you 


	15. chapter 16

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Ranma clenched his hands into fists, rolled over onto his back and kicked the sheet off. He was sound asleep but not happily; he was having a nightmare...again.  
  
It was dark and cold. Ranma was flat on his back, spread eagled; his arms and legs tied to something he couldn't see.   
  
"Oww! Stop it!"   
  
Ranma was suddenly out in an open field his arms and legs tied to horses. They were being whipped to make them pull.   
  
"Stop! You're tearing me apart!"  
  
Ranma sat up with a gasp. Sweat trickled from his hairline and down his cheeks and chest, even his back was sweat soaked.   
  
"Damn that was a bad one. Ryouga, I hope this dream diary thing works, I feel stupid keepin' a diary like some girlie man."  
  
Ranma turned on the light picked up a notebook and pen from the bed side table and began to write.   
  
After finishing his task he mumbled, "I might as well get up. Between that belly ache and this I'm not sleepin' anymore tonight. I'm going for a walk."  
  
Ranma walked down the pathway beside the dorm. Suddenly a dark figure loomed up in front of him. His attack was lightning fast and quiet; a simple side kick knocked Steven flat.  
  
"Son-of-a-bitch! Ranma, what the hell are you doing wandering around outside in the middle of the night?" Steven groaned as he sat up unsteadily his hand pressed to his chest.   
  
"I couldn't sleep. I had another nightmare. What are you doin' out here?"  
  
"I see someone wandering around the dorm at ..What ..2am and I'm not going to investigate? Yeah. Right! Besides I'm so sore I can't sleep either. Come on, I'll buy you a soda." Ranma pulled Steven to his feet. "Ugh! You kick like a mule, that's going to leave a mark. Dorie is going to kill me."  
  
"Sorry. Ya jumped me ya know. You're lucky I wasn't set right. I coulda broken something. Let's go t' the main kitchen. I'll make ya an ice bag." Ranma pulled his que, a sure sign that he wasn't happy.  
  
"Here, put this on that bruise and tell me where you got the rest a' those very interestin' marks. Ya all hold out on us too much. We get more scared if ya don't tell us stuff that if you tell us the gruesome details." Ranma examined Steven, he was bruised here and there and had a cut on his forehead.  
  
Steven accepted the proffered ice bag and put it on his chest with a hiss.  
  
"OK. There was an incursion. That's where the barrier between dimensions, whatever; breaks and creatures from that other demention come through. We had a little critter control; but most of the critters that come through are just magical enough that guns don't work so you have to mash them with brute force. That's where people like you and I come in. We do the mashing. But I'm getting old enough that it's getting tougher than I like."  
  
"It's times like this that I wonder what it's all about. Why is there so much evil in the world? I think I'm getting cynical or something. It's been something like twenty years and it hasn't gone away. It is better than it was when I got started. I had nothing and nobody except my teachers. No team, nothing; then a bunch of us all found out about each other and ganged up on the secretive old bastards we were working with. We made up the first strike teams and took over organizing things. We got the CIA, MI5, and every other organization we could involved in this. We get help from all over. We're still so secret that it's burn before reading and shoot yourself in the head after. But most of the real high end brass have seen enough to believe in us and give us practically anything we want."   
  
"Why do they do that I'd think they'd want everyone t' know...."  
  
"Ranma think. You're too used to Nerima. Most people would panic, world wide panic; people hoarding food, water, money; fighting over stuff, building stockades and survivalist groups running rampant. Not a pretty picture and don't think it won't happen."   
  
"Yeah. Nerimians....is that a word? Well, anyway, they just ignore stuff. Ryouga and I got into a fight and just about destroyed a coupla' warehouse blocks. No one even blinked. But I see what ya mean. They either stick their head in the sand or go nuts. As t' why there's evil in the world... Here have some soda, I don't want it all."  
  
Steven took several swallows. "Aaahh, cold soda."  
  
Ranma took back the can and squatted next to Steven's chair. He swirled the last swallow of soda in the can.  
  
"I know you all think I'm just some dumb jock. But ya know I do think lots more than I let on."  
  
"How do ya know this soda is cold? I'll tell ya. Because you've felt hot. Ya know when you're sad 'cause you've been happy."  
  
"Everything is contrast; or balance. Ya can't have one without the other."  
  
"Ya know good 'cause there's evil, but someone has t' maintain the balance between the two."  
  
"And that's us poor assholes, you, me, Ryouga, Sunny, everyone a' us. We're the ones who hold it all in balance wether we like it or not. We can wish all we want but; Wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first."  
  
"Well, between fighting, my belly ache and prowling around till all hours ya look like you're ready to drop. Go t' bed." Ranma stood up and offered Steven his hand.  
  
"Yeah, I'm going to bed. Dorie will be wondering where I am." At Ranma's odd look Steven snapped, "What? I can't go to bed with my wife? Grow up."  
  
Ranma mouthed 'Wife?' and decided he was too tired to try figuring this out.   
  
Ryouga and Ranma were the first teens to get to the gym. Ranma muttered, "I can't believe some bureaucratic prick says we have to take a gym class. It's a total waste of time. I'm not gonna do it."   
  
As the others arrived the general consensus was that Ranma, Ryouga and Kuno didn't need gym; and Shuba was of the opinion that any training that the others needed could be done by the aforesaid teens.   
  
"Aforesaid? You're as bad as Kuno.", Ranma snickered, "we need t' get t'gether in the common room after classes today. We need t' get some things lined up or someone's gonna get hurt." Ranma had changed from laughing boy to serious team leader in a second.   
  
Ryouga and Kuno eyed him and then nodded to Shuba. Things were starting to come together naturally. Both girls poked Danny who just nodded at Shuba too.  
  
"All right, Here we are. I'll be your new gym teacher. I don't expect much from you just yet. I know you special school kids. All brains and no brawn. But I'll have you up to snuff in no time."  
  
"Roll call! Answer up loud."  
  
Ranma looked the over-weight, loud mouth up and down in total disbelief. Steven; on the sidelines where no one could see; nearly gave himself away laughing. This was going to be good. The bureaucrat who had wished this idiot on them was only trying to get his nephew a job.This was going to be fun.  
  
"Kuno Tatiwaki!" "Here" Hibiki Ryouga" Yeah" The roll call went on until Ranma was the last one.  
  
"Ranma Saotome" "Gettin' a little personal ain't ya?" " What?" "Callin' me by my given name first. It's a bit personal for a teacher don'tcha think?"   
  
"Well, what should I call you then?"  
  
Ranma started at the man's feet and let his eyes insolently wander up to his face. "Saotome.....Sensai"  
  
"Sensai...that means teacher. I'm the teacher here. Don't get smart."  
  
"I thought the whole purpose of goin' t' school was t' get smart. So smarten me up. I dare ya." Ranma saw no reason to be polite to this fat fool. He probably didn't know a Kuni from a cockroach.  
  
"All right, you young smart ass. I'm sending you to the headmaster's office. Get going." The teacher pointed his finger at the door. "I hope he teaches you a lesson."  
  
Steven decided it was time to rescue Mr. Duncan. Although he wasn't sure why. He didn't like the idiot either. If he quit they wouldn't have to fool with this anymore and Steven could get back to training his new recruits right.  
  
"What seems to be the problem here? Aren't you getting along with the martial artists in the group? Ranma instead of glaring the paint off the walls. Why don't you and Ryouga demonstrate your levels so Mr. Duncan can figure out where to place you in the required gym classes. We need to maintain our high levels you know. We have to be accredited or you'll have to go to school in town."  
  
Lights went on in everyone's head. Bureaucratic interference or what ever. They had to play by their rules in some ways in order to keep the Child Protection Agencies off their backs. You could do alot as long as you didn't neglect education.  
  
"Well now we're getting somewhere." Mr. Duncan' self-satisfied attitude set everyone's teeth on edge. "Let's start with a basic kata. Just follow me."  
  
Ranma and Ryouga just shrugged, Kuno managed to hang back behind them; he didn't want to be in the line of fire when all hell broke loose; as it surely would.  
  
Mr. Duncan turned to face the boys. When he started the first set all Ranma and Ryouga did was follow him; from half way to the ceiling. "Huh? How'd they.... These kids aren't brains; what level are they?"  
  
Ranma eyed Ryouga "You a ten dan? I guess I could qualify if I wanted to."  
  
Ryouga shrugged, "I don't know. I never managed to stay in a dojo long enough to qualify. That's why I'm not as good as you. You're stronger and have trained more than I managed to."  
  
"Hunn You're still almost as good as me."  
  
Mr. Duncan puffed up like a Fugu; "You obviously don't need my services I'll qualify all your students as passing Senior gym class. I hope you're satisfied."  
  
Steven grinned, Oh yeah! Now we don't have to waste valuable time on this foolishness. I can't believe that some idiot in the local school system couldn't understand that people who spend six hours a day training intensively in martial arts don't need gym class."  
  
Mr. Duncan, on his way out the door snapped, "It's not really for the conditioning I think. It's to develop team spirit and mutual cooperation. Good luck turning that bunch into a team of any sort."   
  
"Well he's got one thing right. We need t' be a team and it's not happenin' this way." Ranma turned to Steven, "We need t' talk big time. Will you come t' the common room?"  
  
"Sure, what do you want to talk about?"   
  
Ranma waited until everyone was settled in the commons; then he turned to Shuba, "Ok you have the floor. Get it all out and let's see where we really stand."   
  
By the time Shuba was done talking; with plenty of interruptions and interjection by all the others, his head was spinning. They wanted access to all records and mission intel; training in swat tactics and use of any and all equipment available.  
  
Ranma ended the session with, "We're supposed t' be a strike team but we ain't got a fuckin' clue an' I'm not about t' loose people because you tight asses won't turn loose of information or proper trainin'. And why don't you just shoot the damn things? Ya said something about it last night but I was tired and didn't click."  
  
Steven stood up and looked the group over. "I don't know exactly what to say. I'm sorry." all the teens groaned as one. "No, come on let me finish. Leela and Danny are the only ones who have ever been on a mission of any kind and I'm sorry to say that we've been coddling them. But you're right. We can't protect you and use you at the same time. I'm going to make arrangements to use the gym period to train you all in the use of tactical equipment and we are already working on a," he looked around again "Demonnarium"  
  
Ranma gave Steven a disgusted look. "That better be a who's who of the deamon worlds."  
  
"It is. We've always been secretive, you know why; but it's causing us more trouble now than it's worth. We loose information every time someone dies and us old farts are getting wasted at an amazing pace. We lost Andy last night. I didn't know him well but he left behind an amazing amount of info and a written request that everyone write down every thing they know and we set up a data base. I'm going to Switzerland tonight to attend the meeting."   
  
"Mr. Perkins will be in charge until I get back. He's a bit by-the-book, but he's got instructions not to interfere with your training and he won't. In fact in light of your requests he'll be just the one. He's an equipment freak of the worst sort. If it beeps or is electronic he wants one."  
  
After a short planning session the meeting broke up.  
  
Sunny flopped down on the love seat, it had been a hard day for all the teens. It was the first day of new training and they had had a hard time. The temporary Headmaster was a stick but he knew what he was doing when it came to equipment. He'd drilled all the teens himself; and drilled them and drilled them.   
  
Sunny wasn't too worried about herself since she didn't go into actual combat. Being a healer she stayed behind, waiting until she was needed to heal someone. She was also the official gofer of the group which she didn't mind; it was helping after all.  
  
Shuba had taken to using the new equipment like a fish to water; he had already been coordinator for Leela and Danny so they were good too.  
  
Ranma and Ryouga had taken a little longer due mostly to Mr. Perkins inclination to expect them to take everything he said without question. "As if! Why that stupid man didn't just answer their questions as they came up I'll never know. I can't believe Ranma got in his face like that."  
  
"Yes young lady I can't either." Mr. Perkins grumped as he walked into the room. "I find that I usually get answers to my questions about people from the healer attached to the group. So what's up with Ranma. He so arrogant I don't think I'm going to get anything through his head and that Kuno boy. He's electronically challenged."  
  
Sunny sat up and gave Mr. Perkins as dirty a look as she was capable of. "Ranma has good reason to be arrogant; but he's not really. He just knows what he can do and doesn't see any need to be bashful about it. He's so good it's scary. Ryouga is the only one who has a chance against him and only if he's lucky. As for Kuno-kun, he doesn't like strangers much and he's still wary of you so he came off clumsy; which he's not. You can't by-the-book this bunch it won't work." (Why do I get the feeling that he stopped listening just now)"  
  
Mr. Perkins got up and thanked Sunny. "Say, you kids haven't been out of the compound in a while. I don't count that shopping trip. To prove that I'm not all by-the-book. I'll have a driver take you into town to that new club if you'd like. What do you say? Ask the others and I'll make arrangements. Just be sure to take your new cell phones, all of you."  
  
"We can go to a dance club? Oh, Geeze; that would be so nice. Thank you so much." Sunny jumped up and hurried out.   
  
Everyone wanted to go dancing, even Ranma; after Sunny assured him that she would teach him to dance the minute they got there.   
  
Sunny giggled. "If you can do all those amazing things fighting. I know you can learn to dance. Just think of it as the Challenge of Martial Arts Rave Dancing."  
  
"Oh, gods; did you have to say that. Now he'll be insatiable." Kuno covered his eyes and shuddered dramatically.  
  
The teens met at the dormitory lobby and piled into a van. The driver looked sour and pulled away with a jerk. He wasn't in the best of moods; there was a poker game with his name on it; but now he had to escort a bunch of hormone laden teen age brats to a club and wait around till they decided to give it up and come home.  
  
"I'll probable be out till that damn place closes at midnight. Shit! I wanted to play poker."  
  
Ryouga tugged at the drivers sleeve "Hey, why don't you come in with us. You might like it."  
  
"No thinks kid. I can't stand that techno crap. I'll go to that coffee bar and sit, I brought a book on tactical retreats of history to read."  
  
Ryouga eyed him askance. "Tactical retreats Ok, what ever. See you at midnight."  
  
The driver groaned.  
  
The minute they got in the door the teens were engulfed in a wall of noise; music, talking; read shouting over the music, and the faint sound of the bar all competed with each other.  
  
"Hey, there's a booth. It's just right." Sunny pointed to a booth on the second tier next to an exit. "Oh! Someone else is going to get it! Darn."  
  
"No they won't. I'll get there first." Ranma jumped from a standing start up to the booth Sunny wanted; getting to it just before six older boys could. "Sorry this spot's taken. Move along."  
  
After ordering drinks, non alcoholic as none of them were old enough to drink; Ranma and Ryouga followed Sunny and Leela to the dance floor. Ranma immediately began to dance quite well. And Ryouga wasn't bad either.  
  
I...thought...you...couldn't ...dance.!" Sunny had to shout each word individually so Ranma could understand her.  
  
"I've...got...eyes...I...watched" Ranma shook his head; he knew Sunny couldn't understand him. She just shrugged, mouthing later and continued dancing.  
  
Danny and Shuba stayed at the table; content to watch, while Kuno went on the prowl. He was handsome and elegant in a dark blue silk shirt and black jeans, his shoes were polished to perfection and every girl he approached danced with him. He was careful not to dance more than once with any girl, he didn't want any one of them to entertain ideas of going home with him; he was still old fashioned in some ways.  
  
Ranma and Ryouga looked like brothers; both boys had worn plain blue jeans and tee shirts somehow both had chosen dark green. With their dark hair and dark eyes they looked handsome, confident and very sexy. Girls approached them and tried to crowd between them and the girls.  
  
Sunny had worn a pair of mid thigh length shorts and a tee shirt covered by a tank top; her shorts and tank were dark pink while her tee was a lighter shade of the same color, she had dyed her hair fuschia like she'd said she would.  
  
Leela had worn jeans and a silk shirt over a tank top, everything she wore was dark gray which showed up her silvery hair.  
  
Both girls had no trouble keeping the sharkettes at bay; maneuvering the boys easily. Of course it didn't hurt that they were cooperating to stay with their friends instead of being lured away.  
  
"Hey, this was our table until your punk friend ran us off. Why don't you two losers just give it up and move on?" The speaker was about twenty and larger than either Danny or Shuba but neither was about to give up their table just because some 'townie' wanted it.  
  
Danny stood up and straightened his dark blue jacket, his pants and shirt were the same color, "You're just jeallous because girls like my silver hair and green eyes as opposed to your mud look ."   
  
Shuba just shook his head and stood up too. He had really liked this new burgundy shirt; but it was sure to get torn in the fight Danny and the townie were picking.  
  
"Hey! Is there a problem here?" Ranma gently put himself between his friends and the larger, older group. "You guys still after our table? Why don't you get a life and leave us to ours?"  
  
Grumbling the older group slunk away threatening to get even later. "You kids think you're hot shit. Well....we'll just see about that! We'll get you back! Wait and see."  
  
Ryouga sat down in the booth. "I'm so scared. What the hell do they think they're gonna do against the seven a' us. There are only eight a' them. I could handle 'em myself and never even break a sweat. Hell, Danny and Shuba coulda' taken care a' them."   
  
Taking the complement for what it was Danny and Shuba both laughed "Thanks so much!" "Oh, I'm not worthy!"  
  
Leela looked at her watch, "Hey, look at the time! It's almost midnight. Sunny, I need the necessary. Come on!" Leela grabbed Sunny and dragged her off in the direction of the exit where the restrooms were. "Don't go anywhere! We'll be back in no time!We wont' be gone long. Ten minutes tops."   
  
All the guys groaned; they knew that with the two girls it could be any where from ten minutes to a hour or more. Girls being what they were.  
  
Danny yawned, "I'm tired. I think I'll go on to the van Shuba you coming?"  
  
"Yeah, I'll come with you; Ranma, you and Ryouga wait here for Leela and Sunny." Shuba didn't even realize that he was giving orders.  
  
"Yes Oh, mighty coordinator We will obey the voice of the team." Ryouga bowed exageratedly.  
  
"What's going on? Did I miss something important?" Kuno walked up wiping sweat from his forehead with an immaculate folded handkerchief. "Where are Sunny and Leela?"  
  
Danny nodded in the direction of the Ladies' room. After quick explanations Kuno decided to wait with Ryouga and Ranma since he hadn't finished his drink yet.  
  
"Last call! Last call for alcohol!" The music went down and the lights went up slowly. The girls weren't back yet.  
  
"How long has it been since those two went to the restroom?" Ranma was getting worried. He was sure it had been more than ten minutes. "They said ten minutes. Let's go look for them."  
  
"How are we going to...never mind." Ranma had switched to Ranko and walked right in to the restroom.  
  
He popped out almost immediately. "They ain't there and the place is a mess. That little sittn' place is turned inside out; there's been a fight Damnit, where could they have gone? Or." Ranma snarled, "been taken."  
  
A quick search of the area showed that the door was blocked open with a wad of paper shoved into the lock and the scrapes on the concrete outside the door made them all unhappy. The sight of a small wallet dropped about 20 feet from the door gave them all shivers. It was Leela's and she would never have dropped it; Danny had given it to her and she thought a lot of it. A little further along the alley Kuno found an earring. Sunny wore clips so everyone was sure it was hers; besides Ranma recognized it, having spent some time staring at it on the van.  
  
"Damnit! It's those townies! They've taken the girls. We've gotta find 'em." Ranma grabbed Ryouga and Kuno. "Don't go off half cocked! We need t' think this through or we're gonna loose before we begin."  
  
The look on his face was frightening. Someone had messed with his friends; not a good idea when it was one of the guys; a really, really bad idea when it was one of the girls.   
  
Shuba answered his cell, "Moshi-Moshi, Ranma where are..."  
  
"Shut up and listen. That pack of townies have Lella and Sunny. Call the cops but warn them that they'll only be cleanin up. Don't bother to try Steven; he's gone, remember? Get Cen Ops; find out if they can trace the girls phones like Mr. P said." When Shuba started to argue; Ranma said, "Coordinate. Do your job."  
  
Shuba stood and thought for a few seconds; he didn't even seem to breath.  
  
"Hey, Driver; we've got a situation. Here's what it is."  
  
After filling the driver in on what was happening and telling him point blank that any interference wasn't happening. Shuba called the cops then Cen Ops.  
  
Centeral Operations. "What's your situation?"  
  
"This is Shuba. Leela and Sunny have been kidnaped. We need..."  
  
"Young Man, this is an unlisted phone. We don't appreciate pranks."  
  
"Shut up and listen!.We're Brat Pack, Georges whatever. We've got a real problem here and I don't appreciate bein' hung out t' dry. If ya don't know who we are then get me a supervisor! NOW!"  
  
Almost immediately another voice came on the line. "We'll call the poliece. Just stay where you are."  
  
"Look, I already called the cops. They can't get here in time and neither can you. Ranma, Ryouga and Kuno can handle anything a bunch of townies can dish out; but we need to find the girls now before something happens to them. So what do I do?"  
  
A quick converstion in the back ground and a few curses and the first voice came back on. "Sorry, you sound so young. You're identified now..."  
  
Hey! Someone do something or we'll wing it and you can explain t' Steven why we got left out in the cold. I need to have contact with Ranma Saotome, Ryouga Hibiki, and Tatiwaki Kuno. Hurry! Also, Danny and Shuba; no last names."  
  
"Activate the secondary screen in your cell phone.... we have everybody traced now. Ranma, Ryouga, Kuno as principle operators are green. Danny, and Shuba are secondary that's yellow. Leela and Sunny are targets that's red. In this situation we hand control over to the field agents nearest to the action. That's you kids; need anything call. Otherwise; you're on your own. Good luck!" The operator turned to the night watch commander. "Damnit, I hate turning this over to a bunch of untrained inexperienced kids but they are active agents and on the spot so I'm stuck. Shit!"  
  
"Ranma, Ryouga, Kuno you hear that? We're on our own. Let's get busy."  
  
Shuba used his position to orient his strike team. Danny kept the driver on the phone to the police and stayed in the background to gofer as needed.   
  
"Ranma you're point with Kuno and Ryouga wing. I've found the girls. They're a block away straight ahead. It's a warehouse from the data on my screen. Damnit, I need a bigger screen. This things almost impossible to read. It's small less than ten thousand square feet. Empty too. There's a sky light and two entrances. One right in front of you and one on the west, your left side. Ranma, head straight to the door and try to distract those assholes from hurting the girls. Kuno take the west door; Ryouga go through the skylight, if you have to break it watch out for glass falling on the target. Danny, that driver and I will follow up for clean up. Keep any of those idiots from escaping; if you leave us anything."  
  
The boys split up and started working their way to their positions. Ranma just opened the door an walked into the small warehouse. It was pretty much empty. There were only a few crates all empty arranged around a pool of light from an overhead fixture.   
  
In that pool of light were Sunny and Leela; surrounded by the eight townies, who were engaged in mauling them; shoving them from one groping set of hands to another. Sunny looked blank like she couldn't believe this was happening. Leela was made of sterner stuff and was putting up a struggle. As Ranma got close one of the abductors slapped her across the face knocking her down.   
  
"Hey! Quit that, ass-hole. Pick on someone your own size!"  
  
Ranma ran up to the gang of punks. He skidded to a sullen stop when one of the bruits pulled a knife and held it to Sunny's throat.  
  
"Come closer..yeah, that's right. Come right into the light. Well, if it isn't the tough guy himself. Lets see how tough you really are." Sunny whimpered as the idiot pricked the tender skin under her jaw just enough to draw a drop of blood.   
  
Ranma froze; his eyes turned copper and his face became calm. "Don't hurt her. You want to hurt some one hurt me. I'm the one you have a problem with"  
  
"Yeah, I've got a problem with all of you. You don't want me to hurt her? Kneel and beg!"  
  
Ranma didn't hesitate for a second; he dropped to his hands and knees, bowing his head. He begged, 'Please, Sir, don't hurt her." He sat back on his heels, his toes turned under.  
  
"I can't hear you. Beg me some more. Louder this time, I want all my friends to hear." The punk shook Sunny a little just to hear her whimper.  
  
Ranma kneeled forward again scooting his knees to his hands. He turned his finger tips toward each other and put his forehead on them.   
  
"Sir, Yes Sir. Please don't hurt her I'm begging you not to do anything. Hurt me!"  
  
Ranma sat back on his heels again. He took a quick peek around and saw Ryougas' silhouette against the night sky and Kuno behind one of the few pillars close to them. Everyone was in play.  
  
Ranma placed his hands on the floor for the final time and leaned forward.   
  
"Beg me like a vassal slave. You beg so nice. Try again and I might just let you take a beating instead of having fun with your girl"   
  
All the other punks gathered around were laughing and sneering at Ranma calling him yellow and chicken; and other more offensive names. Ranma didn't even notice he was focused on the knife.  
  
Ranma knelt back on his left foot, raising his right knee he put that foot flat on the floor. He put his left hand in front of that knee and tucked his right hand behind his back. Scooting forward again he bowed his head just enough so that no one could see his eyes.  
  
"Please master don't hurt Sunny."   
  
Ranma closed his fist; shoved off with his right foot and planted his fist in the face of the boy holding Sunny. He slapped the knife away with his other hand. He pulled his punch considerably but he still felt bone crunch under his hand.  
  
Leela rolled to her feet, grabbed Sunny and dragged her out of the way, putting herself and Sunny against a crate.   
  
Ryouga crashed throught the skylight and snatched two of the punks off their feet; Grinning manaiacly; he smashed their heads together with the sound of a smashing watermelon. He looked like he'd lost his mind.   
  
Kuno had found a dowel rod about an inch and a half diameter and using it as a sword cracked one boys ribs and anothers collarbone. The other three ran for it only to run into Danny and Shuba who did a little punching and kicking of their own.The driver just looked on.  
  
Vignette  
  
"Man you shoulda' heard him, whinn' and beggn'" The driver imitated in a high shrill voice. "Oh please sir don't hurt her" On his knees no less. I didn't see it but I sure heard it. Little punk begged like a girl  
  
Ranma grabbed Sunny; dragging her into his arms. "Sunny lift your head let me see how bad it is. The bastard I'll gut him like a fish." Ranma wanted only one thing; for Sunny to be unhurt.   
  
"Ranma! Oh, gods! I'm glad to see you. They were gonna ...."  
  
"Hush! Don't even think it. I'm here and it's all right." Ranma held Sunny; rocking her in his arms like a baby.  
  
Ryouga held Leela and touched her bruised cheek, he looked as feral as Ranma. "Which one did this. I'll slap him into next week." Ryouga was snarling like a mad dog.  
  
"NO! Ryouga, don't. I don't care about that. I'm just glad you got here when you did. You were wonderful!" Leela clung to Ryouga who gathered her into his arms and held on tight.  
  
Kuno smiled to himself and started cleaning up the human debris of the first mission of the Ranma team. {I Wish they'd quit calling us the Brat Pack}  
  
Shuba was on the phone with the police. "No we aren't staying around to explain this mess. A bunch of your punk town bastards kidnapped two of our female operatives and tried to rape them. We rescued them and we're going home to take care of them. Get in touch with Cen Op; they'll fill you in. They have it all on audio tapes taken from our phones. No we arn't just a bunch of little kids. We take care of our own and don't need your permission to do anything. If you don't like it get in touch with Steven Campbell or the Assistant Headmaster Mr. Perkins. Only don't blame me when he bites your head off and spits down your neck." Shuba snapped his phone closed. " Come on you guys lets get home"  
  
Danny approached Ryouga "Hey, Ryouga; She's my sister. Come on man, I'd like to see her too." Ryouga came to enough to realize who Danny was but he still refused to let Leela go.   
  
Ranma was as bad about Sunny ;carrying her to the van and climbing in, he settled her in his lap   
  
Mr. Perkins met them at the clinic attached to the main building. Maa Yao met them also. She insisted on taking both girls into a private curtained area and examining them thoroughly.  
  
The boys all waited; pacing or sitting quietly, according to their personality. Ramna sat so quietly the Mr. Perkins sat down beside him. "Ranma, don't worry. They aren't hurt badly. You reached them in time."  
  
"Yeah just barely. I should have known something wasn't right. My gut was telling me so. I should have listened to it It's all my fault." Ranma hung his head "Damnit, I'm so stupid!"  
  
"That's enough young man. You couldn't have known those punks would be so stupid. It is because of your quick thinking that those girls are safe and sound."  
  
Mr. Perkins couldn't believe Ranma was blaiming himself. "Stop second guessing yourself. We'll have a debriefing in the morning just as if it was an assigned mission. You can all use the practice. Now stop that."   
  
Maa Yao pushed the curtain aside. "They are scared and shaken but that's all. I've given them both a very light sedative. Take them to their rooms and I'll come along to get them to bed."  
  
You wanted longer chapters! 


	16. Chaapter 17

Chapter 17  
  
During the debriefing; which was handled just like any mission debriefing, Mr. Perkins convinced Ranma that it wasn't his fault. Complimented Ryough and Kuno on their combat skills and Shuba on his mission coordination. He also managed to convince Danny that he was no more guilty of failure than Ranma. The two girls were still in bed sleeping due to the sedatives but Maa Yao had been filled in the night before and told everyone their side.  
  
"I'll send a report to the Chief of Police. I don't see any reason the girls should have anymore to do with this mess. Our legal department will handle it."  
  
"Forget it! Just learn a lesson. Don't get separated. Always stay together; at least three by three, understand? Ok. Get out of here, go blow off some steam. No school today. " Mr. Perkins shooed the teens out of the debriefing room.  
  
"Yeah, Steven, they handled it like a perfect strike team with years of experience. I herd from Kuno that Ranma distracted that punk; begged like a trooper and faked him out. He got close enough to prevent him from doing more than pricking her in the neck. I've cut myself worse shaving. But he's one of those guys that takes responsibility for everything wether he's guilty or not. We'll have to watch that. All in all I think they're ready for some real action. If only they wern't so young. Yeah, I know we were young once too but that was a hundred years ago. Bye"  
  
Ranma had gone for a run into the hills; he needed time to consider what Mr. Perkins had said to him. A nice long run helped clear his head. He realized that Perkins was right. It wasn't his fault, they should have been safe in the club. He decided to do as he'd been told; put the attack on the girls behind him and take a lesson from it. Keep an eye on your team mates.  
  
"Damnit I'm too late for lunch. The kitchen is closed. I'll go to the main mess instead. No one said we couldn't"  
  
Ranma entered the main mess hall; the one the fifty or so 'grunts' ate in. Most of the grunts were older and Ranma had no problems with them but some twenty of them were young. Older than the Brat Pack but still in their mid to late twenties.   
  
They had joined up for 'adventure'; some of them had visions of being dragon slayers or some such romantic idiocy. Ranma had no patience with that foolishness and didn't bother hiding his dislike of their inexperienced fantasizing. So the soldiers didn't like him and he had no patience to try to woo them to his side.   
  
Ranma joined a line of men shuffling through the serving stations. The food looked good and there was plenty of it. Ranma pointed to the pans of things that looked interesting and the servers dished it up with out comment. Except for the last station where a mess sergeant looked at Ranmas' tray and then told Ranma, "I hope your eyes aren't bigger than your stomach. The rule here is take all you want eat all you take."  
  
"Ok. I'm on a pretty heavy exercise load so I really eat a lot. Thanks for the warning though." Ranma smiled at the 'old fart'. "Un. Excuse me. Do you know John? I don't know his last name but he works in the supply depot...had an accident a coupla' weeks ago; hurt his knee. I'd like to know how he is."  
  
"Hey! Yeah, John Drago! That last injury to his knee took him out of action. He's retired and dandling grandchildren on the other knee. Lucky jerk!"  
  
Ranma smiled and said it was good for him.  
  
Heading to a table he had another run in with some of the 'pita brigade'. Skipping over the feet stuck out in the aisle in an attempt to trip him; he settled at a table in a corner with his back to a wall. He wasn't sure why but it was the only table he felt comfortable at.  
  
Ranma started eating. He was hungry and hot and tired; he wanted to eat and then take a shower, check on Sunny and Leela; then spend some time goofing off for once. But it was not to be.  
  
"Hey, sissy boy! You don't belong here! This is our mess. Eat in your own."   
  
Ranma didn't even look up; he just wanted to finish his meal and leave with as little trouble as possible.  
  
His tormentor looked around at his buddies, sneering. "Sissy! I'm talking to you. Little beggar. I heard about you. Beggin' like a girl. Why don't you beg me for your food."  
  
Reaching across the table the man started to snatch Ranma's tray. That was such a monumental mistake that it almost got him killed. Ranma reacted like a starving junk yard dog; or an ex-slave. He grabbed the man by the wrist and jerked; pulling the man into a punch that fortunately never connected; a shout from the Mess Sergeant stopped him just in time.  
  
The Sergeant jumped over a table and pushed his way through the crowd of men. "Hey! No fighting in the mess. What the hell is going on here."  
  
Ranma still half out of it slapped the man he was holding across the face splitting his lip.  
  
"Ok, that's it! I'm calling Perkins. He'll sort this out."  
  
Mr. Perkins arrived in less the five minutes. He sorted the whole crew out with a glare. Getting the low down from several men that he had worked with ;men he trusted to be frank and fair. He made a decision.   
  
"Ok, Ranma; you know the rules just as well as I do; if not better. I'm sorry; but you're in for it this time. You can't go around assaulting 'civilians'; by that I mean people who aren't like you. Head for my office or do I need help to get you there."  
  
"No. You don't need any help. But I'd like t' ask ya for a favor. If ya will."  
  
Ranma knew he was going to get a beating. And he knew he deserved it. These men couldn't hope to survive a punch from his fist; he'd smashed every bone in that guy's face last night. And he'd pulled his punch.  
  
"If I can I certainly will but you aren't getting out of your punishment so don't ask."  
  
"No, I know I'm gonna' git it but I'd like a few witnesses if you don't mind." Ranma turned and pointed to his tormentor and three of his cronies." Him, him, him, and that one. Who is your commandin' officer? I want him too."  
  
Ranma walked after Mr. Perkins with the chosen men trailing after them.  
  
Ranma stood in front of Steven's desk, it felt strange to see Mr. Perkins behind it instead of Steven.   
  
Perkins gave Ranma the 'we are special and we have great responsibilities' lecture. Ranma wished he'd get on with it.  
  
"I would like you to read this aloud so we all will remember it. Start right here with 'undisciplined"  
  
Ranma read the rule out without even blinking. "Undisciplined fighters are a danger to all non-combat personnel and cannot be allowed to continue in dangerous behaviors i.e. attacking any civilian personnel for any reason other than direct attack upon their own person. Any such behavior will be punished by 10 lashes upon the buttocks via cane or strap."   
  
Ranma put the book down turned to the standing men and said, "You're considered support personnel; that's 'civilians' or non-combat in our book. You're here because you lack discipline. I can't discipline you but you get to have the pleasure of seeing the consequences of your actions in provoking me. Enjoy."  
  
All five men; all Americans, looked like they couldn't believe what was going to happen, "Hey you can't hit that kid."  
  
"Yeah ,he can. This is Japan and this compound doesn't even follow Japanese law. We make our own and you'll go by them or get out. You wanted to humiliate me so shut up and stand there."  
  
Mr. Perkins finally stepped in and put and end to what look to be an endless wrangle between opposing forces. "Gentlemen, you signed up to be support personnel for one of the most covert operations in the world; but it seems to me that you have an exaggerated opinion of your own abilities. You are here to make sure that Ranma and his team get where they are supposed to be whan they are supposed to be there. Not get yourselves killed by one of the strongest fighters of this century. I'll have you at attention if you please."  
  
All five men braced hard, they hadn't quite gotten it throught their heads that Perkins was really going to beat Ranma that just wasn't the way things were done. But they were all about to have a rude awakening.  
  
"The man that moves out of at ease is gone. You'll be given one hour to collect your things and go home in disgrace. I ought to send you home now but I'm not sure which one's of you are the offenders and which just bystanders."  
  
"Remember this lesson. We don't pamper our fighters; we expect the strictest discipline from them and we enforce it rigorously; corporal punishments are rarely handed out but under certain circumstances they are mandatory. This is one of them."  
  
"Ranma if you would please?"  
  
Ranma leaned over the desk. He was wearing sweats; for which he was thankful,. if he'd been wearing jeans, Perkins would have made him drop his pants. Perkins got the cane from behind the cupboard. One of the men gasped "Damnit" then flushed.  
  
Ranma looked over his shoulder. "You! Yeah, you know who I'm talking to. Come here where I can see you."  
  
The man glanced at his commander then moved to the other side of the desk. Ranma ran his eyes over the group making sure that every man got a good view.   
  
"I'm ready Mr. Perkins. Let's get this shit over with." Ranma set himself   
  
"If you look away I'll get you in the night so help me" Ranma whispered to the idiot who had started this mess.  
  
Each blow landed with crisp efficiency. Ranma never took his eyes off the man in front of him; never blinked, never grimaced; just looked at him with cold distant eyes as if he wasn't quite there. He never shed a tear; not even tears of pain.   
  
When Perkins was done he put the cane away.   
  
"Let that be a lesson to all of you. Your actions have consequences for you or others; make sure you know the consequences of your actions."   
  
Perkins left the office shutting the door firmly; he didn't know what Ranma had in mind and didn't want to know. Believable deniability.  
  
"It's not real. It's some kind a' trick. No one treats a kid that way; not in this day and age. Damnit, it's the 21st century." The commanding officer wanted to believe it so badly he could taste it.  
  
"Yeah, they do. Especially if one of us nearly kills someone."   
  
"Ya don't know me; so I'll explain. Ya don't mess with my food or sneak up on me; even for a joke. I'm different from all ya. I don't know what your malfunction is but I know this. Ya want to do my job but ya can't even carry your own weight. Ya have some glamorous fantasy about what we are. Reach over and hand me that."  
  
Ranma pointed to a piece of rebar that Steven had been using to hang a map. It was an inch in diameter and about five feet long. He bent it into a circle and handed it to one of the men  
  
"Hand that around. Anyone a' ya that can straighten it out is on my level; anyone else'll just get in the way. That'll get someone killed and I won't tolerate that. As for this being a trick of some sort."  
  
Ranma turned his back and lowered his sweats just enough to show the top few welts.  
  
"I wish it was. But I know I'm strong enough t' smash your face in or break every bone in your body; so I deserve t' be punished. You're delicate, fragile compared t' me and my crew and we're supposed t' be responsible enough t' keep from hurting ya even if ya deserve it."  
  
"As for me beggin' for Sunny's life; one, it was a ruse t' get me close enough t' get the knife. And two; she's my comrade. I'd do anything for her or any a' my team mates. I'm proud t' beg for her life. I wouldn't want t' work with anyone who wouldn't do whatever they had t' for a team mate. Now get out before I get pissed."  
  
The men all crowded out as fast as they could.  
  
Later; in the mess the commanding officer of the grunts dressed them all down. "I don't know what you young idiots think is going on but get any idea of being more than support out of your heads now. We don't have the strength to be St. George or anything like him. That kid Ranma and those other two Ryough and Kuno are it and we aren't. We got that kid punished. It's my fault more that anyone's because I let rivalry develop where it can't be. Get over it and get on with business."  
  
Vignette  
  
"Yeah. But you know that kid Ranma. He made me stand where he could see me. He looked at me like I was dirt or something. Really creeped me out. He never even blinked; not a sound, not a tear. Like he'd had worse and couldn't have cared less. And I saw the marks. The old bastard really laid it on him. Kinda made me sick. I'm walking a wide path around all those kids from now on."  
  
Ranma lay on the couch in the commons with Sunny sitting on the floor beside him. He hurt but not to bad; Perkins hadn't cut him, just given him welts. He'd had worse from his Pop just for failing to duck.  
  
Sunny put her head on Ranmas back. "I really want to thank you for what you did. I know it had to hurt you to beg like that. It hurt me."  
  
Ranma told her the same thing he had told the others. "Sunny I'd beg for your life again in a minute. I'd give my life for you without a moments hesitation. I wasn't ashamed to get on my knees. It doesn't matter what those fool think of me; only what you and the others think. Besides every time I knelt down I got that much closer to him. I hope I permanently rearranged his face."  
  
"Ranma, you're so smart. I saw what you were doing and it never occurred to me that you'd get so close so quick and Kuno and Ryouga were wonderful too."  
  
"Where's Ryouga; and Leela? Danny and Shuba are in some research mode in Shuba's room. Kuno go find them will ya?" Ranma didn't like the idea of not knowing where his team mates were. He was a little protective just now.  
  
Kuno just rolled over on the floor, he was watching some old samurai movie. "Ryouga and Leela are on the roof star gazing. Leave them alone."  
  
Ranma snorted, "Yeah ,star gazing my ass. Sucking face is more like it and what is Danny gonna say?"   
  
Ranma rolled against the couch back. "Sunny, I know you want to help but what use is a punishment if it's healed away. You'll just get yourself in trouble with Perkins."  
  
It was Sunny's hundredth attempt to heal Ranma. She couldn't get him to let her because he was stubborn and afraid she would get in trouble.  
  
"Ranma, I can't stand to see you in pain. Please...."  
  
Steven walked into the room interupting Sunny's hundredth plea for Ranma to let her heal him.  
  
"Ranma there you are. I just got back and I'm steaming mad. I promised you that you would never get more than four lashes; damnit. I leave for a few days and this has to happen. I'm sorry."  
  
Ranma stood up when Steven came in the door. Sunny crept up on him slowly.   
  
"Oiy! Steven, it wasn't your fault. It was mine. It's not as if I didn't know the rules. I just can't stand having any one mess with my food; you know how it is. So I nearly killed the idiot; which I knew better than and I got my ass beat. It won't kill me and It wasn't you who did it so give.....Sunny do you know that you are stroking my ass?"  
  
Steven who had been watching Sunny sneak up behind Ranma and touch him; nearly choked on his tongue. Kuno had both hands pressed firmly to his mouth to keep from howling  
  
"Yes, Ranma I know. There, all better." Sunny gave Ranma a little pat of satisfaction. She wasn't going to let Ranma be in pain no matter what.   
  
Ranma just let his head hang for a minute then he laughed softly. "Oh hell! Sunny I give up. It didn't hurt that much. But if you're happy who am I to complain. And what the hell are you two idiots laughing at."   
  
Which only caused the two 'idiots' to laugh even harder.  
  
After getting himself under control Steven sent Kuno to gather the rest of the Brat Pack.   
  
"I have had it with all the trouble we've been having with the young recruits. I've noticed the older men don't care but the younger ones all seem to think they're being robbed of the chance to be St George or something."  
  
"Danny And Shuba don't have trouble and of course the girls don't; but it seems that you, Ryouga and Kuno are putting up with an awful lot of grief. So I have a suggestion. It's completely up to you; but I think you ought to let anyone who wants train with you."  
  
Ryouga sneered, "Yeah, right, they couldn't keep up with us."  
  
Ranma thought, pulling on his que; while Kuno just looked at the ceiling with a small, slightly twisted smile.  
  
"That's the idea. They have no idea how strong you kids; are how good. All they see are three little boys. Most of them have brothers your age. They resent you. They think all they have to do is train. You need to show them differently. What do you say?"  
  
Three Ok's left him with nothing to do but issue the challenge  
  
Steven had contacted the Lieutenant in charge of the "Support Personnel Division" read grunts. He told him that he was tired of the recruits thinking that they were ever going to be more than 'eyes behind'; support personnel who handled transport, camp security and reconnaissance.  
  
The Lieutenant; who was a contemporary of Stevens' had replied that the only way to stop the problem was to prove that only Ranmas team were 'Georges'  
  
"Yeah, get your people to the Quad at 6:30 am. They can train with Ran-chan and his crew. Tell them if they can keep up, they're in."  
  
Ranma looked the group over, then poked Ryouga in the ribs. "Where's Shuba, I'm not talking to this bunch of weaklings and losers. There isn't a promising guy in the bunch."  
  
Shuba addressed the group of men. "All right. Here's the deal. The girls, Danny and I don't train with Ranma, Ryouga and Kuno. We're not Georges; we have our own specialties."   
  
"Anyone who doesn't want to be run into the ground then spread out to dry can follow us on our workout. Any of you people who are gluttons for punishment go over there."   
  
Shuba pointed to the far end of the quad. Most of the younger men headed that way. Some of the older men; obviously just there as observers, snickered.  
  
Ranma nodded to the other two boys, "Let's go. No holding back. If they can't keep up they get left behind." All three headed for the road up to the high meadow behind to school at a dead run.  
  
On the way up Ranma cut back twice just to check on the grunts. On the second pass he was glad to see that none of the older men were running; they were 'chasing'; following on ATV's. They were picking the drop outs up and taking them to a truck which was following close behind. Ranma hadn't thought Steven would leave anyone stranded on the road and he was right but he'd had to check.As much as he disliked most of these men he didn't want to see them stuck for a ride.  
  
Of the fifteen or so men who started out running only five actually made it to the meadow under their own steam. The rest came up on the truck.  
  
The men who made it on their own didn't have anything left. Ranma just shook his head. "And you guys want to fight deamons and stuff. You're pitiful. Well, I thought you might train with us but looks like I was wrong."  
  
Turning to Ryouga he said, "Here put this on." Ranma handed Ryouga the hand cuff they'd used before. "I don't want to loose you. Kuno; you can for now. I'll get to you later.  
  
Kuno groaned dramatically, "That's what I'm afraid of."  
  
Ryouga snapped the cold steel around his wrist, Ranma waited until he was done and then all hell broke loose.   
  
Ryouga 'called' his attack "Shi Shi Hokodan"; a ball of power the size of a golf ball materialized in his hand. He threw it at Ranma who blocked it with a double forearm, crossing his arms in front of his face. The force of the attack threw him back several feet dragging Ryouga with him. The chain between them was only fifteen feet long and the force of the Shi Shi Hokodan put him at the end of it .   
  
"Mouko Takabisha"; Ranma retaliated with his own attack.  
  
Ryouga jumped into the air but the ball of energy hit him in the belly before he could get above it. As the air whooshed out of his lungs he managed to flip backwards and buy himself some time. The chain dragged Ranma off balance which gave them both a quick breather; a second was all either one needed.  
  
Both boys went into the air with a bound. The watchers found themselves watching blurs and flashes of light as the boys fought with an intensity that was terrifying. They looked like they were trying to kill each other.   
  
Ranma finally grabbed Ryouga by the ankle jerking him from the air and slamming him to the ground, he landed on his back with a crash. Ranma landed beside him a split second later. Everyone started to rush to their sides but Ryouga bounded to his feet using one of these flickering shoulder rolls that look so easy and aren't.   
  
"Son of a bitch Ryouga you've got a kick like fucking mule I half expect you to start eating hay any minute." Ranma unlocked the cuff from around his bleeding wrist and Ryouga accepted the key to do the same. Sometime during the fight the chain had broken.  
  
"Ok, Kuno; it's your turn now. Ryu get a drink and cool off after I'm done with Kuno we'll do kata and then go home."  
  
Kuno undraped himself from the front rack of the ATV Steven was sitting on. "Why don't you give the guys who are eligible a chance. You said if any one got up here under their own power you'd let them train."  
  
"Yeah. So I did. Ok, who want's to be first?"  
  
A hard faced man of about twenty-five approached Ranma. "No! Pax! Not a chance! I've been elected on accounta I'm what ya call a snake eater. I apologize for the whole buncha' us. We see what ya mean. There's no way we can keep up with you.Ya mean there's actually somethin' out there we need people like you to fight? That's scary and I don't scare easily. So, sorry; don't kill us; and all that ok? "  
  
Ranma looked at the man and wondered what he ment by snake eater. He'd eaten plenty of snakes, it wasn't that big a deal. He decided to ask Steven about it later.  
  
"Ok, I don't hold a grudge but I got a lot a' training and school and stuff; so spread the word. We're not puttin' up with any more shit. I've personally had enough. Ya mess with me now ya see how things are and I'll fight ya; just like Ryouga will and Kuno too. Spread the word. If ya can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch and I'm the biggest dog around."   
  
Ranma smiled to take some of the sting out of his words. He was learning; mainly because Shuba and Ryouga had nagged at him all night. He didn't see any reason to coddle their feelings but if it would help prevent trouble he'd go along.  
  
"School? You've got school?" The man looked amazed.  
  
"That's one a' the reasons we don't have time for this shit. We've got t' train in the morning, get cleaned up, have breakfast; then we have classes, lunch, spec-ops training, more martial arts training, homework, dinner and if we have time then we can watch a movie or something. Well, we better get back t' training; we still have an hour a' kata after I whip Kuno's butt."  
  
Everyone within hearing was either stunned into silence or groaned loudly.  
  
"What? Ya think this comes easy? I been training since I was six."  
  
"Kuno, I want ya t' work on punching so no sky hopping; stay on the ground. I know you're good with a sword but what happens if ya loose it?"  
  
Kuno just nodded and set himself. He was going to impress Ranma if it killed him. He was just beginning to understand how dedicated Ranma was. His intensity was incredible and his skill as a teacher unequaled even by older teachers. Even if he was somewhat impatient; which he saw Ranma curbing with some effort.  
  
"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken" Ranma jumped Kuno suddenly.   
  
Kuno just absorbed the punches; he wasn't unused to this particular attack. He dropped squatting and sweeping Ranma's feet from under him with a squat spin kick that landed Ranma flat on his back.   
  
Ranma rolled and pushed off with just his arms planting both feet in Kuno's face except Kuno managed a cross arm block that rattled Ranmas teeth with the force of his own blow. Ranma flipped backwards twisting in the air to put him facing Kuno. He launched another attack; this time nothing fancy, just a simple straight forward from the shoulder punch that rang Kunu's bell and put him down..  
  
" Don't always expect some high level attack. Even the simplest of attacks can get to you. Here!" Ranma gave Kuno his hand; pulling him up and slapping the dust out of his back. "That's enough for you. I don't wanna hurt ya. We'll work up to a full work out."  
  
"Damnit, I thought sure I had you. You still owe me a rematch; swords may turn out to be the weapon of choice you know."  
  
"Yeah, I'll match ya when Steven says it's ok Let's head back now" All three boys took off running back down the road.  
  
"Damnit, they're running back to base. Don't those kids ever give up." The Lieutenant just shook his head   
  
"No. In this case giving up isn't and option." Steven headed back down the mountain after the three. 


	17. chapter 18

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma  
  
Dedicated to powelt for being a good sport. and to dogbertcarroll thanks  
  
I'm using rows of x's instead of asterisks because my format eats them.  
  
Chapter 18  
  
When they got to the bottom of the mountain. The other teens were waiting for them with drinks and towels. That's when Ryouga's luck changed.   
  
They were all hot and sweating. Sunny handed Ranma a bottle of water and a towel. "Here dry off and hydrate; I don't want you getting sick." She proceeded to pour another bottle of water over Ranma's head.   
  
Suddenly, "Hey, what the hell! Squeeeee!" Someone had poured a draft of cold water over Ryouga.   
  
Ranma pushed his way through the staring, milling men and picked Ryouga up.  
  
"Shit! I thought you were going to tell Steven about this and get him to do something....stop that."  
  
Ryouga had bitten the finger Ranma was pointing at him.   
  
Leela stood and stared at Ryouga for all of two minutes. "Oh, my! Look at him! Isn't he just the cutest thing? Let me hold him." Reaching out Leela took Ryouga from Ranma.   
  
"Don't worry we'll fix it. Sunny and her mother can figure out something."  
  
Ryouga struggled to be put down. This was so embarrassing. He didn't want to be cute he wanted to be a man; not a piglet.  
  
Ranma picked him back up and caught up to Steven.  
  
"Excuse me! I hate to dump this on you now. But this is Ryouga; he's got a curse too. Can you do something about it?"  
  
As he was talking Ranma threw a towel over Ryouga and dumped some stale tea water over him. It was hot enough to do the job. Ryouga changed back and stood up rapping the towel around his waist.  
  
Hanging his head he said, "I'll pack my stuff and be going as soon as I can. Sorry."  
  
"Pack? That's stupid! I told you to talk to Steven, you dummy!"  
  
Steven watched as Ranma and Ryouga got into it.  
  
"Why would they want me? I change into a pig; no, a damn piglet! What happens if it starts to rain while we're on a mission? I should have known better!"  
  
"You're stupid! If they did something for me; they can help you!"  
  
"How?"  
  
"I don't know!"  
  
"Idiot!!"  
  
"Moron!"  
  
"Fat head!!"  
  
"P-chan!"  
  
"Neko..."  
  
"ENOUGH!! Stop it! Now!" Steven used his drill sergeant voice; the one no one ignored. "My office, now! Sunny, you too, please."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
In Steven's office he threw a little fit of his own. "I'm ashamed of you both. Fighting like a couple of children. Ryouga, how did you think you were going to hide this from us? We can take care of this. Sunny, if you'd take a look?"  
  
Sunny ran her hands over Ryouga. "It's a plain Jushyenko; we learned how to convert it from working on Ranma. It won't be difficult. Ranma, will you help?  
  
"Me? How can I help?" Ranma was already over being mad at Ryouga. "Oh, and if ya think you're gonna crap out on me you've got another think comin'."  
  
Ryouga just hung his head. Leela thought he was cute. Ugh!  
  
Ranma watched Ryouga as he seemed to drift off somewhere. "Ryu, we're gonna paint ya purple; hang ya from the rafters and flay ya alive."  
  
"Uh. Ok, what ever."  
  
"Hibiki! Wake up, damnit. Pay attention! Worry about Leela later, right now worry about what's at hand."  
  
How Ranma knew exactly what Ryouga was thinking was beyound Steven and Sunny but he seemed to get Ryougas attention. Mostly by slapping him on the back of the head, hard.  
  
Ryouga got himself back together {Pay attention, stupid, the rest of your life is riding on this} "Ranma I hate t' do this t' ya; but I got P-chan out a' the way, wether I like it or not but you have t'...  
  
"Yeah, Neko-kun, we'll handle it together; both of our problems. But let's take care a' you first. All I have t' do is stay away from cats."  
  
Sunny just grabbed both boys by an arm and dragged them to the lab.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"No whining, Ryouga, I'm not going to violate rules just because you don' like them."  
  
Ryouga was violently protesting being strapped down. He wasn't too happy about how fast things were moving but Ranma was holding him down while Sunny buckled the straps.  
  
"Damnit, I'm not dangerous. How dangerous do ya think a ten pound piglet can be."  
  
"Yeah, and where does the other hundred and some pounds of ya go I'd like t' know. Ya look worn out every time ya change. I don't like the thought a' havin' all that weight drop out a' the sky while Sunny's workin' on ya. The Laws a' Conservation a' Mass and Energy can't be ignored forever."  
  
Ryouga had wondered where the weight went to himself. But it was magic which was it's own explanation.   
  
Sunny put her hand over Ranmas mouth. "Stop arguing. I've got to concentrate and I can't with you jabbering. Mom look at this, he loses about a hundred and fifteen pounds when he converts into his other self."  
  
Maa Yao ran her hands over Ryouga in much that same way Sunny had. "HHmmmm! We could convert the curse to a wyerding. That would work and he wouldn't have to worry about changing unexpectedly. What do you think young man?"  
  
"I don't know what t' think. What the hell is a wyerding?" Ryouga was getting more and more unhappy. He realized that he really hated being strapped down. It reminded him too much of the institution he had worked in. His depression had never gotten out of hand but there was always that specter hanging over his head. "Ranma let me loose. I don't like this at all. And where the hell did ya learn about laws of physics?"  
  
Ranma reached over and took Ryouga's hand. "Sorry, Ryu; I'm not takin' any chances with Sunny or Yao-dono. Hang in there. I'm right by ya all the way."  
  
Sunny reached over Ryouga and took Ranma by his other hand. "Ranma, we need to use a lot of chi to do this. I don't want to wind up the way I did before. Can I use some of yours?"  
  
"Sure. What ever ya need. I don't know how t' give it t' ya though. What do I do?" Ranma was willing to give Sunny anything she needed to help Ryouga. All either one had to do was ask.  
  
"You don't need to do much just open yourself and let me touch your chi. If you let me I can just help myself."  
  
"Hey! I still don't know what a wyreding is. What if I don't like it?" Ryouga appreciated all this but he wasn't about to submit to something without explanation.  
  
Maa Yao patted his shoulder. "Sorry. Ever watch horror movies? Werewolves do exist; more or less. Not the blood thirsty things from the movies..."  
  
"Wait ..Wait you're going to turn me into a werewolf? How can you do that?"  
  
"No! Not a wolf; a boar." Sunny huffed impatiently how could they turn him into a wolf when he was a pig? "A wereboar. I think we should anchor to the dark of the moon instead of full moon; don't you, Mom?"  
  
"Yeah, that would be more covinent. I think you won't have too many missions in the dark moon. Shall we get started? Ranma stand here between Sunny and me. Ryouga stop fussing! We'll be done in a minute."  
  
Ranma backed up stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Slow down. You're going way too fast. What if Ryu doesn't want to be a wyerdin...what you said. What are his other options?"  
  
Ryouga couldn't believe Ranma was standing up for him like this. But then why not? He was his friend and commanding officer. It was his duty to take up for him.   
  
"Ranma, it's ok. I think. Just give me a minute to think things over." Ryouga lay still for a minute. "If I don't do this what are my other options?"  
  
Sunny looked sad. "You'll be able to stay here, of course; but no missions. It's too dangerous. You could change at the wrong time..."  
  
"I know that! Don't you think I haven't stayed awake at night worrying about it? Let's do this before I chicken out!"  
  
Ranma looked at Ryouga, but he seemed determined so he gave his hands to Sunny and her Mother. It didn't take long. Ranma felt a funny pull but let himself go; letting Sunny drain his chi.  
  
It was really amazing that nothing more happened than what did. Sunny pulled her chi and her mothers and pushed it into Ryouga. He began to glow then Ranma felt the pull of her using his chi. After that nothing.  
  
"That's all? That's it? No fireworks or anything?" Ranma and Ryouga were both let down. They had expected more.  
  
"Nope, that's all there is. He's a wereboar now. The three nights of the dark moon he'll turn into a hundred and someodd pound boar. I think we're lucky he didn't turn while we were working on him."  
  
"I don't believe it." Ryouga; ever somewhat over emotional, started to cry. "Get me off this table please."   
  
Ranma grabbed the straps but he was tired from Sunny and Maa using his chi so he fumbled them.   
  
"Damnit! Come off." Ranma gave the strap around Ryougas right wrist a jerk. It broke with some help from Ryouga yanking on it too; so the boys proceeded to snap the three other restraints and head for the door.  
  
"Here, it's clean. You need it more than I do." Ranma handed Ryouga his bandanna back. "Come on. Let's go back home to the dorm. I need a shower and so do you. Or would you rather go to the bath house and have a soak."  
  
Ryouga wiped his eyes. "Dorm and shower I think. Ranma, what the hell am I gonna tell Leela. She thinks I'm cute. Dammit!"  
  
"No, she thinks P-chan is cute. If you tell her the truth; including the fact that you hate P-chan and he's gone, it'll work out or it isn't intended to." Ranma pulled his que until his head hurt. This was either going to fix everything or Ryouga was going to be hurt bad.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The minute they staggered into the commons Leela jumped them. Hugging Ryouga she kissed him on the cheek "Sorry, Ryouga, I didn't know that would hurt you. How did you ever get into such a mess. I looked all over for you after I got over being shocked. Please don't be mad at me. I'll get Sunny to fix it somehow. I promise."  
  
Ryouga just about collapsed. "Leela let me sit down. I'm tirder than I thought I'd be. Here, Ran-chan, sit down before you fall down. I wonder where Sunny is?"  
  
Shuba walked in and sat in his favorite chair. "Want to wait until everyone is here or should I report now and fill everyone else in later?" Shuba got a good look at the two teens and decided to make a quick report to them and get them to bed. They both looked bad.  
  
"Sunny is in bed at the clinic. She's just tired form the conversion so don't head back Ranma."  
  
"Leela, it was a Jushyenko curse. But they converted it into a wyerding. He's going to turn into a boar at the dark of the moon. Ryouga don't be mad at Leela she's an idiot when it comes to animals. But enough of this. I think that both of you need to take a nap."  
  
Ranma resisted laying down in what he considered practically the middle of the day; as did Ryouga, but Shuba managed to get them to lay down in the commons. Ranma on the floor and Ryouga on the couch. It took them all of two minutes to fall asleep.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"Dorie did you ever get a report on this Neko-kun thing."  
  
"Yeah boss and I don't like it a bit. My report says it's anamalistic; split personality thing. Survival paramount. I don't think he's fully in control of it or he would be able to use it at will; so he's hiding it. It's all emotion; no reason. I think he's afraid we'll lock him up or send him away if we find out. We'll have to corner Ranma tomorrow and get all the facts."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
All the teens spent the rest of the day lounging around or studying. That was one of the benefits of going to a boarding school for "special" children; you could do pretty much anything you wanted to do if you kept up homework and didn't blow anything up. In the case of this school you were sometimes encouraged to blow things up.  
  
"Dorie, have you seen Ranma? I want to pin him down about Neko-kun." Steven rubbed his head wearily. Things weren't going well in the outside world. Rifts were beginning to appear and the local government in one place wasn't giving out any information. The Rift nearest the Compound was being handled very well but the one in China {I hate China} was being hidden to save face.  
  
"No, Boss, I haven't seen him. He was down to breakfast, trained; then he disappeared. He hasn't left the Compound so I'll run him down soon. Do you want him here or go to him?"  
  
Doris could find a pin anywhere in the Compound within minutes.  
  
"I'll go to him. He may be hiding out." Steven wasn't looking forward to this at all. He knew that Ranma was proud and probably wouldn't appreciate interference but they needed to get this out in the open. What was wrong with the Neko-kun? Ranma didn't use the attack. It was very powerful so something was going on if Ranma didn't train in it.  
  
"Find Ryouga for me first."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma approached Supply Sergeant Samuels first, "I need something and I don't know how to get it, so I decided to ask you."  
  
"Sure, Saotome-sama, what can I do for you?" Sergeant Samuels leaned over the counter and handed Ranma a can of soda. "Here, take a slug off that and tell ol' sarg what he can do."  
  
Ranma drank the soda in a few nervous gulps. "Um! You'll think I'm weird. Ya laugh and ..." Ranma was sure the sergeant would make fun of him.  
  
"Naw, I saw ya yesterday. I don't care what ya want; I'll help ya get it ...unless it's a woman, that's out." Sergeant Samuels realized that his joke had gone over Ranmas head. "Never mind. What cha want." A few minutes later Ranma was in a machine shop with a Machinist looking at him with a slightly dazed expression on his face.   
  
"Ok, chains that will hold you. Fine, I've got a set of transport shackles here. They needed a spot wield. They ought to do." The man reached over to a work bench and handed the chains to Ranma.  
  
Ranma looked at them for a minute. "Sorry, I know ya just fixed 'em but I don't think ya understand. I'm one a' the Brat Pack and these won't do." At the mans skeptical look he just gave them a hard jerk and snapped them.  
  
"Son of a bitch. I don't believe I just saw that. Those chains would hold a grown man."  
  
"I'm not a grown man." Ranma got a very funny look on his face all of a sudden. {What am I going to be like when I'm full grown?} "I need to find something that will hold me. Wha'da ya have?"   
  
"Nothing."  
  
The gathered men of the Fabrication Department were giving him some very odd looks. "Kid, if this is some kind of joke or something...."  
  
"No, it's not a joke and I'm not some kind a' hentai. I need t' work on an attack and it's so dangerous I could wind up hurtin' someone if I'm not restrained until I get it right. So what can ya do for me?"  
  
"Un...Your English is real good; but my Japanese sucks. What the hell is a hentai?"   
  
The man turned to lead Ranma toward a rack of spools containing different kinds of chain.  
  
"Thanks. I learned from one a' my sensai..teachers... and a hentai; it's Japanese for pervert. I'm not a pervert. I hate bein' chained up; but if this experiment goes wrong I don't wanna be responsible for what could happen."  
  
"Sounds serious. I...hummmm...here try this chain" The man handed Ranma a length of chain saying, "This is Grade 80 half inch tow chain. Has a working load of 12,000 lb.. It's gonna be heavy at 2.6 lb per foot. How do you want to do this? We can fasten it to the anchor with a three inch Pin shackle. But how are we going to get it on you? That chain is thick."  
  
Ranma pulled on the chain. "I'm not sure this is gonna hold me if I hit it hard enough. And I think I need to be completely restrained. Arms and legs. I've got a hell of a kick. I could smash someone easily."  
  
"Damnit, Saotome. There's no way to put these on ya except to machine cuffs. We can do it but I don't like it one bit. I think you're crazy to want to be chained up."  
  
Ranma sighed, "I hate the idea a' bein' helpless; but ya don't understand. I got problems ya have no idea a' and I'm too strong t' take chances. I could end up killin' someone if this gets out a' control. I hate being out a' control more that I hate bein' chained."  
  
Steven walked in just then and heard the last of Ranma's remarks. " Hey, Joe, wha'da ya know?" The old joke brought the same smile it always had.   
  
"Not a damn thing new. Ya know this kid? Have any idea what he's up to? " Joe grinned at Steven. He'd sort this mess out.  
  
"Yeah, I know Ranma. What ever he wants he gets. If he wants restraints just make sure they'd hold me. He's even stronger and he's just about the best martial artist we've got. So cater to him will you?"  
  
Joe wasn't happy but he got to work. He measured Ranmas wrists and ankles and wrote down numbers mumbling to himself. "Crazy, they're all crazy."  
  
"Come back late this afternoon and I'll have something. I'll have to pad them..." Joe was writing something down with his head bent over his clip board but jerked his head up when Ranma interrupted.  
  
"No paddin'. It might make the cuffs too loose." Ranma looked scared. He couldn't imagine what might happen if he got loose; it scared him spitless.  
  
"Ok, Ok. No padding." Joe scratched something out and wrote again. "You're a glutton for punishment if you ask me."  
  
Tired of repeating himself and arguing; Ranma got snotty. "Well, I didn't ask ya. So just do it my way will ya. I'd rather not wind up killin' someone just so I don't get a few bruises; Thank you very much." Ranma walked away followed by Steven.  
  
Steven put his hand on Ranmas arm. "I've been hunting all over for you. We need to talk about this Neko-kun. What's going on with this? You look like you're scared."  
  
Ranma sighed. "I've never been able to call the Neko-kun when I wanna. I have t' have a cat shoved in my face and then it's a real fiasco. What? I know big words. Especially in English; my sensai in Hong Kong insisted I learn. A' course Pop thought it was a waste a' time so I insisted too. I'm a perverse little shit when I wanna be."  
  
Steven gave Ranma a sour look. "Please don't tell me your Pop found that old book on the Neko-Kun that recommended throwing the ...Oh, yeah, he did. That stupid son of a bitch. Well how bad is it."  
  
"I have a screamin' panic attack; then, when the fear gets too much I kinda turn into a cat. I think I am one. It's dangerous. If I don't get calmed down I might turn on someone and hurt 'em. Especially now with all the other stuff...you know. Ryouga has some ideas on how to cure it but it requires desensitization trainin' and I don't intend t' let it get out a' hand."   
  
"Ok, Ranma, I understand. I don't like it but I respect your wishes. We'll see to it that all arrangements are made. I don't want you worrying about it until it's time. You're supposed to be in class right now." Steven wanted to distract Ranma from what he was going to do; even if it was only for a while. It wouldn't do for Ranma to brood to much.  
  
"Yeah, I know. I really appreciate ya arranging for us t' test out a' as many classes as we can. It's gonna take a real load off a' most a' them. They need t' learn so much new stuff. We all are gonna be usin' the newest and best military equipment we can get our hands on. So we need t' be trained with it so we use it right. You older guys are used t' it but we aren't and I don't want any screwups with my crew."  
  
"You're a good commander. Get to class." Steven couldn't help but wish that there had been more like Ranma around when he'd first started. More of his friends might be alive now.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma walked into class more than half way through. "Sorry I'm late. I had somethin' t' take care a'. It was important to..."  
  
The teacher just nodded at Ranma and pointed to a chair. "Sit down. Do you know what we're doing here today?"  
  
"Haven't the slightest idea. Fill me in why doncha." Ranma only knew that this was part of the process which would relieve his team members of an unnecessarily heavy work load.   
  
All of them were very intelligent and were ahead of themselves in school so retaking classes they already knew was a waste of time; a resource which could be put to better use. There was so much they didn't know.  
  
"I'm going to start at the beginning so you understand where all this comes from. Headmaster Campbell has arranged for all of you to take standardized tests; these tests aren't levels tests. They are final tests; the same tests you would take if you had completed the curriculum. If you pass these tests you won't have to continue to waste your time taking the class."   
  
"There are some classes that you are required to take in order to be a well rounded person; literature, art appreciation and music appreciation. But we have arranged for you to test out of even these classes if you can."   
  
"So today we are testing music appreciation. If you can play an instrument at an acceptable level you will test out. This assumes that you can read music. You are required to demonstrate an ability to sight read music, play a piece from memory and to compose at least a simple tune."   
  
"I'm sorry you missed the first part of the class. You missed some fine performances. Sunny-chan and Shuba-san sing divinely, Kuno-san, Danny-san and Leela-chan all play piano at a semi-professional level. We were just waiting for Ryouga to start when you walked in. If you would take your seat we'll begin."  
  
Ryouga walked up to the front of the room and lifted a shakuhachi to his lips. He played a piece that startled everyone; Fukai Mori, a beautiful piece and totally unexpected. After completing that piece he proceeded to compose; on the fly, a very nice piece based on Sakura. When the teacher placed a piece of sheet music in front of him he squinted slightly and then played his way through it acceptably but slowly.  
  
"Well, that was good. I think you could use a little more work on sight reading but I'm going to pass you. Ranma do you play an instrument?" Ranma shook his head and replied, "No, never got to take any lessons. Pop wouldn't let me. But I sing a little. I don't think I could compose a song so I'm screwed there but I can sight read better then Ryu."  
  
"Do the best you can. Composition isn't necessary for a vocalist. I should have made that clear. But instead you have to sing acapella." The teacher waited for Ranma to ask any questions.  
  
"Ryouga would you play Fukai Mori again?" Ryouga nodded and at Ranmas gesture he began to play. Ranma had a surprisingly good tenor voice. Smooth and velvety, his control was; as could be expected of Ranma; excellent.   
  
When he was finished the teacher smiled. "Passed with flying colors. Here is the sheet music. Perhaps Kuno-san would accompany you."  
  
Ranma looked at the music, it was a folk song; he'd never seen this one before but the type was familiar to him; he'd sung similar songs since he could remember. "I think I can sing this acapella. We could cross off both requirements at once." Ranma sang the piece through twice and sat down to applause.  
  
"Well, I'm glad to see that everyone has passed. That's three hours a week you don't have to waste on this." The teacher looked at their faces; they all looked a little shocked that he would call his class a waste. "I'm well aware that you need to spend time training with Special Ops equipment. I'd hate to think that one of you got hurt because you were improperly trained. Music is nice but surviving combat is nicer."  
  
He gathered up his papers stuffed them in his case and left smiling.  
  
"Wow! Ranma I didn't know you could sing." Ryouga poked RAnma in the ribs.  
  
"What? Ya think I'm a completely uncultured knuckle head? Don't answer that!!" Ranma poked him back. 


	18. Chapter 19

Chapter 19  
  
From now on I'm going to have some of the conversations in English and some in Japanese. If they are swearing in English the conversation is in Japanese; if they're swearing in Japanese it's in English. I don't use italics and all that because when I format they just disappear anyway. I know you are all intelligent enough to keep up.   
  
########################################################################  
  
"Let me see those." Ranma was in a bad mood. He didn't want to do this but he had no choice.  
  
The cuffs were machined out of two blocks of steel. The halves were three quarters of an inch thick; curved then flattened on one end, the other dovetail hinged. They were pined together with a large steel pin; the flattened ends fit together and instead of having holes for locks or locks built in, they screwed together with heavy bolts. The chains that led from them were the kind that Joe had shown Ranma the day before. Each chain was about ten feet long which meant that each one weighed 26lb. Between the chains and the hand cuffs and shackles Ranma was going to be wearing a hundred pounds of metal.  
  
"Ok I guess they'll do." {I hope they will}   
  
Ranma examined the anchor point next. Each chain was fastened to a ring set in the concrete wall with a three inch pin shackle. He just hoped they would hold when he got histerical. Yes, he wasn't going to fool himself or anyone else. When he saw a cat he got histerical with fear and since it was irrational there were only a few things to do about it. Live with it, not an option. Cure it with years of therapy; don't have the time or go with desensitization therapy.   
  
This would work but most therapists didn't recoment it. It had a low but unavoidable failure rate. This failure rate had divided results; nothing happened or it made it worse. Ranma ground his teeth till they squeaked; if this failed he was in real trouble. He couldn't go into combat! What if the deamons looked like cats! {Shit! I'm so fucked if this doesn't work!}  
  
"Ryouga, damnit. I hope you know what you're doing. If this doesn't work I'm fucked."  
  
"Ranma, it's considered cruel in most circles. Standard therapies take months or even years, but they're very successful. This is usually successful but the stress is incredible. It's an unorthodox therapy because the practitioners who can use it are few and I'm not one of them. I've only heard about this; I read up on it last night again. I wish you'd reconsider. We can figure out something else."   
  
Ryouga was as ruthless as he had to be but he wasn't doing this without giving Ranma one last chance. The thought of the strugle ahead made him faintly sick, he knew Ranma. They realy should have called him the Stuborn Fool of Nerima; of course Wild Horse did fit, when he got the bit between his teeth he was unstopable.  
  
"No. Let's get on with this." Ranma bulled up, pouting sullenly; his face set, mouth pulled down.   
  
Ryouga just turned his back. He wasn't going to watch any more than he had to.   
  
"Chain him!"   
  
Two men came forward with socket wrenches. "Ok, Mr. Ranma; let's get this over with. Give us your hands " The men used the wrenches to tighten nuts onto the bolts in the cuffs. One of them muttered, "I think they're all nuts. This is cruel! What did this kid ever do to anyone? I'm seriously quitting."  
  
"I didn't do anything to anyone; but I could. Make sure that's tight!" Ranma tested the chains; pulling on them until they hummed with tension.   
  
Both men looked at Ranma out of the corners of their eyes. {'Jew see that?}   
  
After putting the shackles on they retreated to the side of the room; staying only because they would be needed to take the chains off.  
  
When Ranma saw the first cat he didn't even try to fight the coming fear; he gave in to it and tried to let it flow through him like Ryouga had said he should. But it didn't work; all he could do was shiver and scream. He couldn't run so he backed into the wall behind him and slid down it into a huddled crouch.   
  
Ryouga watched with his stomach in knots; if this didn't work Ranma was in real trouble, the stubborn idiot was going to have a heart attack or something. But Ranma suddenly went Neko.   
  
Steven described it later, "You ever try to walk a cat on a leash? One that doesn't want to walk? Well it was just like that except the cat was a hundred and fifty pound boy."  
  
Ranma hissed and spat. He hit the ends of the chains like a cannon ball. He curled into a rolling ball of claws and fangs. This went on for over three hours. Then he fainted; falling flat on his face in a sweating heap.  
  
"We've gotta stop. He's gonna die." Steven looked at Ryouga; if Ryouga said it was over it was over. He was in charge of the therapy as the only one who knew anything about it.  
  
Ryouga shuttered his eyes so Steven wouldn't see the worry "No. Wake him up and start again. He won't like it of we stop now and I don't intend to go through this again. My heart won't take it."  
  
So they woke him up.   
  
"No! It didn't work. All I did was pass out. Ryouga, I thought you said it would work. Son-of-a-bitch! We'll try again."  
  
They tried again with the same results; only it took less time for Ranma to freek out and more for him to faint. They woke him up only to be told to try again; that happened twice.   
  
The last time they shoved Kat into Ranma's face Ranma didn't freek or faint. Instead he just reached out and stroked the cat tentatively. Kat, who was by this time thoroughly disgusted with the whole process rolled over demanding a belly rub which Ranma gave him; then Ranma collapsed.  
  
"Get him out of these chains right now."   
  
Steven sat down on the floor and pulled Ranma into his lap. Ryouga burst into tears of relief and exhaustion. Ranma hadn't allowed any other of his friends to be there; he didn't want them to see him.   
  
"Shit! Look here; the links are stretched."   
  
"Here let me get the wrench on that nut; quit yapping."  
  
Ranma woke back up with Steven cradling him in his arms; "Come on Ran-chan open your eyes. If you die on me you little punk; I'll drag your ass out of hell so I can beat it for disobeying me."  
  
"Now that's just stupid. You never told me I couldn't die." Ranma felt like he'd been dragged through a wall head first. "Damnit, I hurt all over and my wrists hurt even more." Ranma sat up with a gasp. "Did I hurt anyone? Is everyone all right?"  
  
"Everyone's fine. Unless you count the strain of watching you." Steven helped Ranma to his feet. " No you didn't; but not for lack of trying. You were right; if we hadn't chained you up you would have clawed someone to pieces Here's Ryouga. I've got a few things to say to you later. Let Sunny in."  
  
Sunny descended on Ranma like an avenging angel. "Damn you Ranma," Ranma flinched. "If you ever worry me like this again l'll...Oh my God. Look at your poor wrists! They look like hamburger...and your ankles aren't any better. Just exactly what did you think you were doing?"  
  
"Protecting every one from a Neko gone wrong, but everything's fine now, I've got it. I can do it anytime I want I...." Ranma staggered. "Maybe I could sit down again?" Ranma almost made it to the floor. Ryouga and Steven both caught him; Steven held him up until Ryouga got a wheelchair under him.  
  
"Hey, I don't need a wheelchair. I'm not that bad off." Ranma looked both indignant and exhausted at the same time.  
  
"You are all fools! Get out of my way!!" Sunny pushed everyone out of her way. Touching Ranma's face gently she called her chi and healed him; erasing the raw patches where the metal cuffs had worn the skin away. She couldn't do anything about his exhaustion but she did make him sleep "He's asleep and will stay that way at least over night, he should wake up rested. If I ever find out that you idiots are pulling some risky stunt like this with Ranma or any of the others without including me. You won't like what happens. You won't like it if I'm angry. Ryouga, I thought you especially would have better sense; you know Ranma better than any of us. Why would you let him do something like this?" Motioning to the hovering attendants she told them to take him to his room.   
  
Ryouga hung his head, he hated it when any of the girls were angry with him. "Because it was in his best interests, and ours. He can't go through life avoiding cats. I've seen how destructive the Neko-kun can be; and having the only way to use it be sticking a cat in his face? Well it's just unacceptable. Berserkers of any kind are dangerous, believe me I know." Ryouga bit his lip.  
  
"Oh! Well.. I don't have to like it. You're all too reckless with yourselves. I've got my eye on all of you. Steven I mean for you to understand as the healer of this strike team I won't have you endangering my people without letting me in on it. I don't care what Ranma says I'll deal with him later. Just remember if you mess with my team... well you won't like what happens!" Sunny stomped off in a fit of pique.  
  
"What did she mean by 'you won't like what happens.' I thought she was a healer! Does she have an attack we don't know about?" Ryouga eyed Sunny's retreating back with some trepidation.   
  
"No. Not unless you call being nibbled to death by ducks an attack." Steven rubbed the back of his neck and at Ryougas blank stare he finished, "She'll nag you to death about it for days. Every time you think she's given up she'll be right back again. Until every time she opens her mouth you flinch. She can get really shrill when she wants."  
  
Ryouga let his shoulders slump "Oh. Shimatta! I better go find her I'll just grovel for mercy now and get it over with. Then I'm going to bed too. I don't care if it is only...Holy...it's almost 7pm! No wonder I'm tired. If Ranma wakes up at noon tomorrow I'll be surprised. I'm sleeping until I wake up naturally and I'll hurt anyone who tries."  
  
Steven tried valiantly to unravel this convoluted sentence and then gave up. "I'm tired too. I have no idea what you just said. We'll talk tomorrow or next day. Go to bed. Like me."   
  
The group began to break up; medics taking Ranma to his room where Sunny waited to make sure he was tucked in properly. The other teens waited; gathered around Ranma's door.  
  
"He's ok. Just very tired. The treatment worked. For which you better thank your lucky stars Hibiki if anything had happened to Ranma... you just better get used to being scolded because I'm not going to forget any time soon. Ryouga are you listening to me because if you aren't I'm going to make sure you do." Sunny reached out and poked Ryouga in the chest with her index finger. "Pay attention to me I don't want to talk to the top of your head I want to see your eyes I want to be sure that you understand me. No more experiments with anyone unless I'm there to monitor the whole thing I don't trust any of the med tech with any of you... You understand me... Do you... Hey!"  
  
Ryouga had finally drooped to his knees. "I understand! I won't do it again! I let Ranma talk me into it. He didn't want you to see him so crazy. He was afraid you would be afraid of him. I couldn't let him worry about that along with everything else. I'm sorry Sunny. I won't do it again please don't be mad at me." Ryouga buried his hands in his hair and began to pull it.  
  
Sunny grabbed his hands. "No, don't hurt yourself. I didn't know Ranma made you promise. I forgive you; but only if you promise not to let anyone get away with something like this again. Promise?"   
  
"Yeah, I promise. I'm so tired. I think I need to...." Ryouga fell asleep on the floor in front of his room.   
  
"Kuno, will you put him to bed? I'm tired to. I think all of us are tired. Everyone go to bed. Thats an order from your Healer. Scat!" Sunny might be a complete feather head in many ways but when she was in healer mode no one doubted her competence.   
  
Kuno dumped Ryouga on his bed and headed for his room. Everyone else was also exausted by the whole process; especially since they had been kept in suspense; as unusual as it seemed the whole Brat Pack was in bed by 8pm.  
  
The next afternoon Ranma woke up stiff. He decided to skip hard training and do some yoga instead. Of course his routine included some of the most extreme asasnas in existence; he included Kapotasana; placing his head on the soles of his feet (by bending over backwards) as well as Rising Scorpion pose using the power of his back muscles to raise his feet nearly perpendicular to the ground resting his weight on his forearms and chest. He spent over an hour slowly working on his asanas; he held some of his asanas for over ten minutes.  
  
Then he tested the Neko-Ken. Moving gracefuly, he practiced the cat moves; the chi claw attack came to him so easily and he felt the increase in strength and speed; he relaxed as he pulled it back keeping it perfectly under control.  
  
He also discovered that the Aka Tora Tsuba was conected directly to the Neko-ken. He worked on it for a while but realized that the rage he needed to use it was deep and calling it only upset him so he spent a few minutes meditating to calm himself.   
  
"Well, that felt good. I'd really like a bath. There shouldn't be too many people in the bath house just now." Ranma gathered his stuff and went to the bath house.  
  
Ranma walked up to the desk in the lobby and rang the bell. The bath house was nice, a clean quiet place like most you would find anywhere in Japan. Little cubbies lined the back of the room with wire baskets in them. The attendant who answered the bell gave him a sharp look but started his routine.   
  
"Name? Saotome Ranma? Sorry kid not on the list. Why don't you get your Dad to give me a call? That'll get you in."  
  
"What the hell ya mean I'm not on some fuckin' list. Shit!"   
  
Ranma was getting tired of all the problems he and his crew had with the military beurocracy they had to deal with everytime they left the small Quadrangle of the School. The rest of the Compound was run by military and if he had to deal with much more military red tape he was getting out his knife. {That reminds me I gotta talk t' Steven about gettin' my knife back.}  
  
"Look kid; just tell me your Daddy's name and I'll clear it. You can't just wander in here. We're not even supposed to have dependents on base."  
  
Ranma grabbed the rapidly disappearing rags of his temper.   
  
"I'm hot and sweaty. I had a real bitch of a day yesterday and all I want is a good soak. Can you check again?... Please?"  
  
"OK, OK! What did you say your name is again. Ranma Saotome? Look Saotome. Its not here. Call your Daddy and have him talk to me. We'll deal with it that way."  
  
"Look, Mister; I'm not trying to be a punk or nothin' but if you want to talk to my Daddy you'll have to find him first. I have no idea where he is and don't care."  
  
"Now, I'm gettin' kinda mad. I got clearance and stuff. You're just not looking right. Try again. If you guys would only do your jobs shit like this wouldn't happen."   
  
Ranma was getting smart and hostile. He was going to get his bath if it took down right rudeness to get it.  
  
"Don't get pissy with me kid. I got rules to follow and frankly getting rude with me isn't helping you a bit. Who do you think you are anyway?" The man, who was a Staff Sergeant and just filling in while the regular desk man was on break; was getting frustrated. Who did this little punk kid think he was?   
  
Just then Lieutenant Jacobs the commander of the Grunts walked in. "Hey Ranma-sama, what's up? Taking a bath? I got a private tub reserved but the guys can't make it. You wanna join me? I could use some company."  
  
"Yeah; Sure. This asshole just keeps giving me the run around; he says I can't be here because I'm a dependent. I don't depend on no one but myself . What's he talkin' about?" Ranma was now at his most sullen.   
  
The desk man came back just then. "What's going on? Can't a man take a break without the whole place falling apart? HI! Saotome Ranma? I'll get you an authorization in a second."   
  
The Attendant looked at the screen and said "Who the hell typed this in backwards? I got it! You're authorized to use anything you want. Damn, I wondered when you Georges were going to start coming in. Welcome. I'll get you a locker key...there ya go. Enjoy."  
  
The Staff Sergeant just stared; this little boy was a George? He couldn't believe it.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma had striped out of his clothes and stuffed them into the locker that matched his key number. He wrapped a towel around his waist and sat down on a stool to scrub before getting into the tub.  
  
"Ch'! Ch'! Shimatta! Baka! I'm so sick of this kuso. All I want is a proper bath and I get kuso, I mean shit..... Nani yo?"   
  
Lieutenant Jacobs had dumped a bucket of cool water over his own head and splashed Ranma.  
  
"Hey! Sorry Ranma-sama. But you need to calm some; you'll bust a gut. Don't pay any mind to guys like that; they're all anal as hell because they aren't combat material. I don't know if this is right; so, if I'm outta line tell me. You guys all are martial artists and stuff. So were are your parents? How can they let you stay here? I'm walking all over myself here so if I piss ya off just tell me t' stick a sock in it. Ok?"   
  
Jacobs had grabbed his courage with both hands and choked it hard. He had every guy in his unit asking questions and he had no answers to give them. If they were going to be working with a bunch of kids they needed to know more about them. Even if they were outrageously good and strong as ten men; it took more than that to be trustworthy in combat.  
  
Ranma dumped a bucket of water over his own head and soaped up while he thought about how to answer Jacobs questions. He had a sneaking suspicion of the reasons behind the questions and if they were going to be an effective team he was going to have to cut these men a lot of slack and coddle them some. After dumping another bucket of warm water over his head Ranma glanced at the Lieutenant; he was just going about his business patiently waiting for Ranma to take the initiative.  
  
When they finally settled into the tub Ranma began to unbraid his hair. He ran his fingers through it and then realized he was just putting things off.  
  
"Ok, you ask; I'll answer or tell you it's none of your business. How's that?"  
  
"Deal. Parents first please." "Leela and Danny are orphans; Shuba doesn't talk about his so I have no idea; Kuno's Mom is dead and his Dad's a psycho; Sunny's Mom is Maa Yao; actually it should be Yao Maa but she likes American way better. My Daddy's a prick. What next?"  
  
"Well, where's your sister? We saw her around a few times but not recently. She go home?" The lieutenant got an uncomfortable feeling that he'd just stepped on toes.  
  
Ranma could feel himself flushing, he wondered briefly what the man would say; then decided he might as well get it out of the way now and be done with it. This man wouldn't give up until he had answers and Ranma didn't blame him   
  
"Ok, but this is B.B.R.; so it doesn't leave this room. I'm Ranko. That is Ranko is me Aw! Shimatta!" Ranma changed for the man. He stood up in the tub with the water around his waist and changed. "Yamero! Baka yamero yo! Un! Stop that!" The lieutenant had reached out and poked Ranko in the breast.   
  
"Sorry! Really... I'm an idiot! How the hell did you do that? Magic, curse, what the hell?" Jacobs felt like a real fool. If anyone had done what he did to Ranko to his sister he'd be breaking fingers off; but Ranma just changed back and sat down.   
  
"Yeah, I get a lot a' that kind a' thing. You get one screw up; next time I'll smack your face into next week and don't let any of the other Georges find out you did that or they'll rearrange your face. It's a curse. What else do ya wanna know?"  
  
Jacobs shook his head. "Can't think of much else. A lot of questions can't be answered just by asking."  
  
"We need to get together and train you in some insertion techniques; and other stuff and the brass aren't cooperating and I'd like to know why. They say you are too busy and we have to leave it till later. But later may be to late, there have been several incursions already; there are only two full teams left in this area and they are stretched thin. They're older and can't heal up as fast."  
  
"There's only one healer and her daughter but the...Hey she's your healer. Shit, I can see why she has been saving herself; you guys are really rough on yourselves. I heard one of you was doing some kind of new attack and spent twelve hours working on it. Wow! I'd like to meet anyone dedicated enough to have himself chained up so he could work on a ......Damnit, that was you!"  
  
Ranma blushed and stammered wondering just what he should tell the man. If he told him the truth he'd think they were all a bunch of psycho's and that wouldn't help anything. He lucked out, the shoji rattled and Steven called out asking if it was all right for him to join them.  
  
At their ok he slid into the tub and sighed. "Daijoubu desu ka, Ran-chan?"  
  
"Daijoubu, Steven-san. I'm good." Ranma sighed with relief; with this interruption he didn't have to decided how much to tell the man.   
  
"We need t' get together with Lieutenant Jacobs and do some plannin'. After we get trained with all the equipment we need to learn insertion somethin'.."  
  
"We can't keep this up. The Grunts and Georges have t' work together and we aren't doing it. They have no idea a' what we do and we don't have a clue about them either. Like what was all the yellin' about all last week. Why were all those guys stayin' up all night an' stuff. Spill."  
  
Lieutenant Jacobs groaned and let his head drop back on the edge of the tub. "Ugh! Hell Week! I hate it. All the hard work just doesn't pay off with some people and I have to let them go. I hate that. They work so hard and then wash out."   
  
Jacobs proceeded to explain Hell Week to Ranma who stared for a minute and then nodded. It made sense now; why most of the young men didn't like them much. The older men had seen enough of life to let brass take care of the big stuff while they just did their jobs and collected their pay. But the young ones were still trying to bang out a rep and didn't take lightly to what they saw as slackers who hadn't gone through what they did. That was why it had been so important to let them see how the Brat Pack trained.   
  
"I need to get out of the tub. I'm gettin' pruny. Steven, see what you can work out. As soon as we test out of administrative hell maybe we can get something started with the back up crews 'k?" Ranma got out of the tub completely unaware that the whip scars that covered his back and shoulders had turned bright red.  
  
"Son-of a bitch! MMMMMMMMMMM!" Steven put his hand over Jacobs mouth firmly.  
  
"Not a word! You'll just embarrass him. He doesn't know they show and we aren't telling him. Got it?" At Jacobs nod Steven let loose. "Sorry, I'm going to tell you a bunch of things brass didn't want out. But you guys need to know." Steven started talking.  
  
After leaving the bath house Ranma took his things back to his room and went in search of companionship. He finally found Ryouga and Kuno talking swords in the small court yard beside the dorm.  
  
"Hey, were are the girls. I looked all over and can't find them. You're all hiding from me."   
  
Ranma plopped down on the grass stretching and combing his hand through his loose hair. "I better get this braided. I hate braidin' it wet, it takes so long t' dry but if I wait too long it's hell t' braid. I thought I'd get Sunny t' do it for me. Maybe she won't be so mad at me. She likes doing stuff like that. I can't imagine why. I'm gonna try t' find her again. Ryu come with?"  
  
Ryouga just got up and followed Ranma. He was toying with the vision of Sunny braiding Ranmas hair and found it to be interesting.  
  
Ranma started around the corner of the dorm heading toward the back door. He grabbed Ryouga suddenly and jerked him back; he stuck his head around the corner and watched for a little while.Then he leaned against the building shaking. He pressed both hands against his mouth; his eyes wide.   
  
Ryouga's heart fell; a cat? He mouthed 'Cat?' at Ranma; but Ranma shook his head and took one shaking hand away from his mouth to point around the corner. Waving his hand he indicated that Ryouga should look for himself. Ryouga crouched down to make a lower profile. Ranma slid down the wall into a crouch leaning against the support of the building.  
  
Ryouga stuck his head around the corner and nearly fell. There sitting on the steps of the small landing leading to the back door were Sunny and Leela. They were eating Push Pop suckers. They were alternately sucking on the candy and laughing and talking. One would lick and suck her sucker while the other either giggled or talked.  
  
Ryouga joined Ranma against the side of the building.   
  
"Oh, Damn!"  
  
"Oh, Yeah. Cold shower."  
  
"Real cold shower."   
  
Both boys took off at a dead run.  
  
(If you think I'm going to describe Hell Week forget it. Look it up on the Net. I'll just say that it is the best and worst week of military training and either builds a team or ruins it.)  
  
Japanese words I used. If I have any of these wrong would someone please correct me. Thank you.  
  
BakaIdiot  
  
Baka yamero yoDon't be an idiot  
  
Nani Yo?What the hell?  
  
Daijoubu desu ka?Are you ok?  
  
Daijoubu.I'm (implied) ok.  
  
Ch'Fuck  
  
KusoShit  
  
ShimattaDamn 


	19. chapter 20

Disclaimer: I don't yada, yada, yada!  
  
Thanks to: dogbertcarroll, Brother Angelon, Nightowl123, Jerry Unipeg, ranger5,  
  
powellt for consistant and helpful reviews  
  
Special to Gryphon Aerie, Niana Kuonji. I can't spell and my spellchecker won't  
  
take new words. I'll correct the spellings in rewrite, thanks for catching it.  
  
Goku905041 Don't shout.  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Steven had called them all into his office and he didn't look happy. Someone  
  
had played a trick on the man who had started the trouble with Ranma. Whoever it  
  
was had opened the combination lock on his foot locker and put a gag can in it. One  
  
of those cans that look like peanuts but has a spring loaded snake in them. It wouldn't  
  
have been bad except he'd jumped so hard that he'd fallen down and cut his head on  
  
the next bunk over. Four stitches weren't much but still . . .   
  
"So I want to know who did this. I'm not fooling around; we have enough  
  
trouble just now and we don't need this."  
  
Leela admitted she had been the one who pulled the prank. "I never thought it  
  
would be bad. How was I to know the idiot would trip over his own big feet?"  
  
"That's why we discourage pranks. Most of them turn out funny but every  
  
now and then they go sour, like this one." Steven reached into his desk drawer and  
  
took out a plain wooden ruler. "Put out your hand, Leela. You get two smacks."   
  
Leela put out her hand. It wouldn't hurt much. Steven didn't believe in  
  
hurting them. He interpreted the rules as leniently as he could. They'd all heard  
  
Steven dressing Perkins down over Ranma; he'd been hoarse for a whole day.  
  
At the soft pop of the ruler hitting flesh Ryouga went completely crazy. He  
  
grabbed Steven by the arm, flipped him over the chair and into the wall. He was  
  
getting ready to follow when Ranma tripped him. He fell to his knees and Kuno  
  
grabbed his right arm and the back of his shirt, Ranma got his left and wrapped his  
  
right arm around Ryouga's neck. Kuno had to put his knee in the small of Ryouga's  
  
back to bend him backwards hoping to keep him from attacking Steven.  
  
Ryouga struggled wildly, silently; he wanted to kill Steven. He was going to  
  
kill Steven; he had to.  
  
Leela squealed, startled; everything had happened so fast she had no idea  
  
what was going on.  
  
Steven picked himself up and added his body weight to the wrestling match.  
  
Ryouga fought in silence pulling so hard that he dragged Ranma and Kuno across the  
  
floor. Steven used his superior size to good advantage and with Ranma and Kuno's  
  
help he got Ryouga in a Psycho Hug and bent him over so far forward that he  
  
accidentally cut his air off.   
  
After a few seconds Ranma peered at Ryouga. "Un? Steven? I think you'd  
  
better let up; he's startin' t' turn blue. Not really blue . . . sorta gray around the  
  
edges. Damn! He's still strugglin'. Quit that, Ryu; you're gonna hurt someone."  
  
Leela started to come closer. "No Leela until we know what's wrong, stay  
  
away; he might hurt you. What the hell is going on with him? I've seen him like this  
  
once. He nearly killed Mousse . . . for hurting Akane."  
  
Steven was still struggling to hold Ryouga. Kuno was sitting on his legs and  
  
having a hard time of it, Ranma still had hold of Ryouga as well.   
  
"If we don't get him calmed down soon we're gonna have t' sedate him.  
  
Leela I changed my mind! Come here! Let him see you."  
  
Leela came closer and squatted down where Ryouga could see her. "Ryu!  
  
Stop! You'll only hurt yourself! Stop! Please!" Ryouga didn't seem to hear her. "Ryu,  
  
sweetie; stop you're really scaring me!" Leela started to cry. "Rau stops it." Leela  
  
reached out and gently touched Ryouga's cheek; she stroked it and he slowly  
  
stopped fighting.   
  
Ryouga shook his head; he was coming to himself again. He slowly looked  
  
around. "What . . . Oh, you . . . hit . . . Leela. I... " Ryouga focused on Leela  
  
touching him. "Leela! You all right? I didn't hurt you. Anyone? Did I? Uun, Steven?  
  
You're kinda squashin' me. Could you let me up? I'll be good! I promise!"  
  
"Ok. What was that all about? How long have you been a berserker? You  
  
held out on us again damnit. How are we supposed to plan our strategy if we don't  
  
know everything?" Steven was pissed. He was tired of all the secrecy on both sides.   
  
"It doesn't happen very often. Last time was when someone hurt Akane.  
  
Before that someone hurt my Mom. I'm sorry! I thought I had it under control!"  
  
Ranma eyed Ryouga. "I hope I never see that aimed at me! Damn, you got  
  
really strong. And stupid. No planning at all, just straight out attack on Steven. Not  
  
real good.." Ranma analyzed the whole attack in just those few sentences.  
  
Ryouga pulled his arms gently. "You can let go now. I'm Ok. I promise."  
  
Ryouga finally went limp in Steven's grasp. "I'm fine . . . I'm good. Please let me go."   
  
Steven convinced that Ryouga was really not going to attack anyone again; let  
  
go and stood up. As he did, he dumped Ryouga on his feet.  
  
"That was interesting. I've never seen a berserker before. Damnit, if you can  
  
learn to call that . . . well . . . all I can say is it could be devastating. But do you lose  
  
it like that or can you keep enough sense to direct your attack to a target." Steven  
  
was not one to worry about what couldn't be helped he was interested in anything  
  
that could help them in their fight.  
  
Doris, watching from the doorway, just shook her head. "And can you direct  
  
your berserkergang? You know quite well that we just freak you out and get out of  
  
the way. Manly; you're incorrigible. The poor kid is probably worried you'll send him  
  
away or lock him up and you're talking about attacks."  
  
Ryouga was stunned; they weren't going to do anything to him. Attacking a  
  
teacher was grounds for expulsion in Japan. Attacking the Headmaster? Can you say  
  
under the jail? But all he was worried about was how much control he had.  
  
"When I get like that all I see is a red haze. I think if I was pointed in the right  
  
direction I might go for a target but I'd hate t' test that theory. And after, I'm pretty  
  
much worn out. You do whatever you're gonna; I'm goin' t' my room and take a  
  
nap." Ryouga just walked out.  
  
Ranma started to follow but Steven stopped him, telling Leela to go after him  
  
and stay with him until he fell asleep. He told the rest of the teens to leave and 'go  
  
about your business' except for Ranma.  
  
"I've gotten several E-mails from Tendo Nabiki. She's wanting you to come  
  
home for at least a day. Her sister is getting a little crazy. She doesn't understand how  
  
hard you're training and she says she needs to see you. I've made arraignments for  
  
you to go back to Nerima tomorrow. I hate to force the issue but you need to make a  
  
decision; you can't live with this hanging at loose ends and it's not fair to Akane  
  
either. Another question: how are the nightmares?"   
  
Ranma pulled his pigtail, then he just flopped into the nearest chair. "This isn't  
  
fair coming after Ryouga. But I've been tryin' t' see ya for the last day or so. You're  
  
a hard man t' find sometimes. I want my SP-24 back. I can't sleep; I keep havin'  
  
nightmares. With it, I sleep pretty good. Don't ask me why."  
  
"And I don't think it's fair. All the Grunts carry knives and even guns but we  
  
can't have them. Not that I want a gun; I barely know which end goes bang so I've  
  
got no business with one; but I'd like my knife back, please; or even if ya don't."  
  
Ranma prepared for battle and was surprised when Steven just opened his  
  
desk drawer and tossed the SP-24 back to him.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
Ranma snapped the knife out of the air; while he was adjusting the straps that  
  
fitted around his thigh he went on. "I think you're right I need t' see Akane. I've been  
  
thinkin' and talkin' t' Ryouga and I've made a decision. What happens between me  
  
and Akane depends entirely on what happens tomorrow. I'll go kinda late. I'd like t'  
  
get there about 6:00 P.M., please. That way she'll be out a' school."  
  
Ranma stood up, clipped the last strap around his belt and left.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma walked into the yard looking for someone, anyone; he heard breaking  
  
from the dojo so he knew Akane at least was here.  
  
"Akane! Hey, you in there?"  
  
Akane looked at Ranma for a moment then grabbed him and hugged him so  
  
hard his ribs creaked.  
  
"Ranma. I missed you. Come into the house I'll make you some tea. You  
  
have to tell me all about everything." Akane missed Ranma's grimace.  
  
Akane dragged Ranma into the kitchen while she made tea; thankfully she  
  
didn't try to cook anything as Kasumi had left a cake.   
  
Seated at the kitchen table while they waited for the water to boil Ranma told  
  
Akane a very edited version of his story. He left out a lot of his time on the other side  
  
just telling her that he'd been there longer than they knew because time ran  
  
differently.  
  
"Geeze, Ranma, Daddy will really like to hear that you're coming back. He's  
  
been so down since Genma went away. He spends a lot of time at the Shogi parlor.  
  
He won't try to run the dojo and he won't let me run it. Like I'm not capable . . .   
  
Oh the water!"  
  
Akane poured the water into the tea pot and put it on a tray. Ranma reached  
  
out to pick up the tray so Akane could carry the cake. But he accidentally brushed  
  
against her side as he did so.  
  
"Watch it! You didn't learn what to do with your hands yet did you?"   
  
Ranma said through clenched teeth. "Damnit it was an accident. I know what  
  
to do with my hands."   
  
"You are such a pervert! Sit down over there." Akane pointed to the  
  
opposite side of the table from her. Ranma sat, he was already regretting this, she  
  
was as 'don't touch me' as he was.  
  
They managed to visit quite nicely for almost fifteen minutes; then Ranma  
  
happened to remark that it was too bad they couldn't find someone to run the dojo  
  
for them. He intended to say until Akane was older but she didn't let him get that far.  
  
"What do you mean 'get someone to run the dojo?' I'm not good enough? I  
  
could do it if Daddy would let me but he's just dead set on you running it." Akane  
  
was in Ranma's face   
  
"Akane, get outta my face. I don't like it and it's not safe. I got too much a'  
  
that when I was a slave. It makes me crazy."  
  
"If you think I'm gonna run the damn dojo you can forget it. I'm too busy at  
  
school and trainin'. It's to far."  
  
Akane ground her teeth, this wasn't going as she had imagined it would.  
  
Ranma wasn't glad to be back home; in fact, he acted almost as if it was a chore to  
  
be here. And he was as big a pervert as ever. {If he'd just keep himself to himself.}  
  
"You mean you're not coming back at all. I thought you would at least come  
  
back for a while. You ungrateful, self-centered . . . you can't come back just long  
  
enough for me to convince Daddy that you won't work out?!"  
  
"What do ya mean won't work out . . . I work out all the time." Ranma  
  
looked at Akane's furious face and realized what she meant "Oh! Ya mean runnin'  
  
the dojo. I don't have time for that."  
  
"Well, someone has to. You're just mean; all this talk of being with some  
  
super secret agency like some spy or something. It's just nonsense."  
  
"No, it's not. Ya just don't see it because it's Nerima. There's all kinds a'  
  
stuff goin' on and it's up t' me and the other's t' do somthin' about it."  
  
Ranma rubbed his forehead it was starting all over again. They couldn't be  
  
together for more than half an hour or so before they wound up fighting.  
  
Ranma muttered, "damnit, uncute, crazy, thick as a brick, violent tomboy."   
  
"I heard that. Ranma you and the Hentai Horde are just alike. All you think  
  
about is . . . "  
  
"I do not."  
  
"Do to"  
  
"I'm not gettin' in an argument with ya. I've gotta go back t' the Compound  
  
soon. Kuno's gonna be waitin' t' . . . "  
  
Akane screamed "Kuno! What are you doing hanging around with that crazy  
  
hentai moron?!"   
  
Then Ranma put his foot in it bad . . . "Damnit Kuno's not that bad! All ya  
  
gotta do is get t' know him. He's got a brain . . . "  
  
"No! He doesn't! He's the worst hentai I've ever met. He's more trouble  
  
than any two other boys put together. It's his fault we got engaged in the first place. If  
  
it wasn't for him and his stupid 'duel her' thing Daddy wouldn't think I need  
  
'protection' and you're defending him, you won't come help me with the dojo. You  
  
just want to go off and forget all about your uncute fiancee. It's crap!"  
  
Akane could see every thing she ever wanted slipping through her fingers as  
  
Ranma refused to help her. Instead of coming back he was hanging around with the  
  
source of a lot of her trouble.  
  
Akane slammed her hands down on the table and tipped the tea pot. As  
  
Ranma reached out to catch it, she leaned over to catch it too; the result was that  
  
Ranma wound up with his hand somewhere it shouldn't have been. But this time  
  
instead of booting him once and flouncing off in a huff, she completely lost her  
  
formidable temper.  
  
Ranma thought he knew what was coming next; in his experience Akane  
  
would clobber him and run away. This time he was so wrong.  
  
Akane grabbed the nearest loose object which happened to be a bokken.  
  
She hit him on the shoulder; she missed his head only because he moved it.  
  
Ranma started to get up when he realized Akane was going to hit him again,  
  
but then he knelt on the floor instead. What was he going to do; hit her back?  
  
He didn't hit people he loved; not ever, not for any reason; not once.and  
  
surely not more than once.   
  
"Akane . . . ow! Stop . . . Akane you can't do this! Ow! NO! Stop it.  
  
Ow!" His pleas fell on deaf ears. Akane was taking years of frustration and fury out  
  
on Ranma. "Please stop. Akane . . . you're hurting me! ... Akane . . . I can't do  
  
this."  
  
Ranma did the only thing he could think of, he covered his head and took it.  
  
As suddenly as she started, she stopped. "What . . . Oh, Ranma, I'm sorry. I  
  
don't know what came over me. But you know I wouldn't do that if you didn't make  
  
me."  
  
"How the hell can I make you hit me? You can't do that any more; it was all I  
  
could do not to hit you back and you know I don't hit girls. You done hittin' me  
  
now? Can I have the bokken?"   
  
Ranma swallowed his own temper. He was really hurting. In fact he hurt so  
  
bad he felt slightly faint, and that took a lot.  
  
Akane gave Ranma the bokken. He looked at it for a moment and then  
  
broke it like a twig.  
  
Akane put her hand out but drew it back when she saw how very angry  
  
Ranma looked. He looked like he really was about to hit her but he shook his head  
  
and smoothed his face out.  
  
"I'm not gonna tell ya horror stories but they beat me in the other realm and I  
  
react badly t' bein' hit. You're lucky I could hold my temper. Ya got no self-control  
  
damnit. I hoped we could work this out but I can see it's not happenin'"  
  
"I'm not a pervert. Hell, I'm not really sure what a pervert does. I'm sure it's  
  
not accidentally touchin' ya. I've always said you're an uncute, violent, tomboy, built  
  
like a stick, thick as a brick. But now . . . well, I'm sorry I was rude t' ya. I'm sure  
  
my rudeness is at least half t' blame."  
  
"I wish it was different; I really do. But I'm in a fight for more than just my  
  
life. It's serious and I can't afford this. You'll jump me over some petty thing and I'll  
  
hurt ya before I realize who it is. I love ya and I always will, but I can't be with ya.  
  
Ahh this is just stupid."  
  
Akane just stared at Ranma; then she exploded again."Who are you calling  
  
stupid? You just disappear, worry us all to death then come back with these wild  
  
tales and tell me you won't help me with the dojo; paw me and blame me for  
  
protecting my self." She reached out to smack Ranma.  
  
Ranma back stepped.  
  
"See! We can't be together. You'll always be hittin' me. You can't do that  
  
anymore. You'll catch me off guard and get killed." Ranma jumped backward into  
  
the yard.  
  
"Baka!"  
  
"Bitch!"  
  
"Show off!"  
  
"Violent . . . Damn . . . I'm not arguein' with ya. Our engagement is off as  
  
of now. I'm really sorry. This is my fault. If I'd been smarter. Or kept Pop under  
  
better control, this would never have happened."  
  
Akane looked at Ranma she felt stunned. What had she done? Ranma  
  
looked sick and white.  
  
"Ranma! What have I done? I'm so sorry, let me . . . "  
  
"Don't touch me!" Ranma jumped back right to the gate.   
  
He turned and leaned against it for a moment then he faced Akane with tears  
  
in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I hate t' be touched almost as much as you do. I guess we're  
  
both messed up. See about therapy; maybe anger management or somethin'." Ranma  
  
let his tears trickle down his cheeks. "See I have grown up, some."  
  
Ranma opened the gate; "By "Kane, try t' be happy." Ranma gave the gate a  
  
small pat and left.  
  
"Here Ranma what's the matter. You look like she put ya through a wringer."  
  
The driver reached out to take Ranma by the arm.   
  
"Don't touch me. It hurts. Just get me home."  
  
Ranma staggered to the van and crawled into the passenger seat. All he could  
  
think of was part of a poem "Sad shades of home."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The driver looked at Ranma. He was already either passed out or asleep and  
  
the man decided to leave it that way. He went in the side door at the clinic and  
  
looked around.   
  
"Excuse me; Miss. I need some help. Some psycho bitch beat up my  
  
passenger and he said to bring him here before he . . . um . . . not really passed out .  
  
. . kinda fell asleep and I don't want to wake him till I find out if this is the right  
  
place."  
  
Sunny was filling in for her Mother; she filled in once a week when she went  
  
to dinner.  
  
"Ok. I"m it for now; if it's really bad, I can get Maa Yao from her dinner. But  
  
I'll take a look first. He's in the van?"  
  
"Yeah, I think that girl hit him with some kind of stick or something. He's got  
  
a bruise on his arm that really looks bad."  
  
The driver showed Sunny to the passenger side door. She peeked in and  
  
gasped.  
  
"Ranma, what happened to you? Who hurt you like this?"  
  
"Akane. She lost her temper. She's never done this before. She usualy just  
  
smacks me once and runs off but she . . . I don't know what I did, Sunny." Ranma  
  
looked so sad and so hurt that Sunny nearly cried right there.  
  
Sunny snatched out her cell phone and called Steven. "Come to the clinic  
  
right a way! Akane beat up Ranma. No, I don't know how!"  
  
Sunny got two attendants to help Ranma into the clinic but he wasn't having  
  
any of that.  
  
"I'll manage, just give me a minute. It's not really that bad. It's just . . . she's  
  
so strong."  
  
Ranma collected himself and got to a room and up on an examination table.  
  
Sunny whimpered, Ranma looked so white now that she had him in good light  
  
she was afraid he would pass out any minute.  
  
"I don't know what hurts worse, what she did or that she did it at all."   
  
Ranma started to peel his shirt off but had to stop a minute. When he moved the  
  
forming bruises started to pull; he sighed and tried again. This time he made it by  
  
tearing the tank he was wearing; he threw it on the floor.  
  
Ryouga walked in the door just then and went ballistic. "Damnit, Ranma what  
  
truck ran over you? Who did that? I'll get them . . . "  
  
"Shut up, Ryu. It was Akane. I really pissed her off this time. I'm not sure  
  
what set her off but she took after me with a bokken."  
  
"Ooowww! Ranma you look like a. . . . "   
  
"Practice dummy? Punching bag?" Ranma questioned.  
  
"How could you let her do that to you? You could have stopped her  
  
anytime." Sunny couldn't understand.  
  
"Yeah, I coulda' but only by hittin' her. I don't hit girls."   
  
Ryouga swallowed; "Too bad! I woulda. No one should lay down and take it  
  
like that."  
  
Sunny was fidgeting around, trying to get to Ranma. Ryouga was  
  
unconsciously trying to keep her from seeing him and kept getting in the way. She  
  
finally pushed him aside fuming.  
  
"Ryu, get out of the way. I've seen people really beaten up before. I'm a  
  
healer . . . Ranma I don't believe you let someone do that to you. You must really  
  
love her to let her get away with that."   
  
Ranma had laid down on the table with his arms stretched above his head  
  
gripping the head of the table. He had stripes of bruises from just under his arms to  
  
the dimples in his lower back. He also had bruises on his forearms.  
  
"Yeah, I guess . . . How bad is it?"  
  
Ryouga described his injuries to him ending; "What the hell did she beat ya  
  
with? Ya look like . . . "  
  
"It was a bokken. She beat me with a bokken so hard I nearly passed out in  
  
the car, I had t' sit on the floor. Why'd she do that? What do I ever do to make her  
  
hit me? I know we got off on the wrong foot and all but . . . really . . . I'm rude and  
  
uncultured and not romantic but . . . never mind. I'm really startin' t' hurt. Maybe we  
  
can talk later. Think about my questions. 'K?"  
  
Ryouga grunted; their sessions weren't what you would expect, Ranma being  
  
Ranma, he reacted badly to having his questions turned back on him; so Ryouga  
  
knew he needed to come up with answers.  
  
"Ok Ran-chan. I'll try to come up with some answers for you. Don't expect  
  
too much though. You think about it. I'm leaving now."  
  
Ryouga left heading for Steven's office to make a report. If Steven saw  
  
Ranma he'd be pressing charges and Ryouga knew Ranma didn't want that.  
  
Sunny shut the door behind Ryouga and set up her things. A candle and some  
  
liniment, she was going to use the candle to help Ranma relax and the liniment would  
  
help her hands slide as she healed him  
  
"Look at the candle concentrate on the flame I'll begin to heal you in a  
  
minute. You need to relax first."  
  
"I can't. I don't understand . . . I feel so bad. I love her so much. But I  
  
know we can't be together."  
  
Sunny poured sone of the liniment into her hands, rubbing them together to  
  
warm the liquid she asked; "How can you love someone who does something like  
  
that to you? It's . . . I hate to say crazy, but it is."  
  
Ranma closed his eyes enjoying the soothing warmth that spread from  
  
Sunny's hands. The candle smelled good, overpowering the sharp sent of the liniment.  
  
The golden aura of her healing chi soothed his pain.  
  
"Mmmmmm. That feels so good. I love her because I love her. But I can't be  
  
with her. We just don't get along. I'll always have feelings for her. But the heart is a  
  
big thing; there's plenty of room for everyone."  
  
Sunny smiled. "Ranma you're wiser than you know. Go to sleep for a while."  
  
Ranma snuggled down into the padded table. "Sunny? Just rub my back for a little  
  
while . . . it feels so good."  
  
She reached over his head to quickly heal his arms; Ranma twitched as she  
  
pressed her breasts into him. Then she obligingly stroked his back from shoulders to  
  
hips, admiring the firm muscles and soft skin.  
  
"Ooohhh. Sunny I'll give ya about a million years to stop that. It feels so  
  
good. Your hands are so gentle and warm." Sunny found an especially sore spot.  
  
"Yeah, right there."  
  
Ranma fell asleep snoring softly.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Vignette  
  
Ranma twitched slightly in his sleep. It was the beginning of a nightmare. He  
  
was stretched between horses again but this time instead of feeling like he was being  
  
torn apart he flexed his arms and legs; the ropes fell away and the sun came out.  
  
Ranma rolled over and burrowed deeper into his blankets.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Steven had called another meeting.   
  
"Damnit, I hate staff meetings they're boring! I could be studying for that last  
  
sciences test. I have to get this shit out of the way; I'm holding the rest of the group  
  
back. Why do I have to take calculus? What the hell am I ever gonna do with higher  
  
maths?"; Ranma complained, as he wandered around the room jittering.  
  
"What the hell is wrong with you? Damnit Ran-chan, sit down and take a  
  
load off." Danny hated to have anyone behind him; like most of the others did, and  
  
Ranma's path took him behind Danny, repeatedly.  
  
"Sorry. I've still got to take the English competency test so we can get on  
  
with integrating with the support personnel and I'm nervous. Too much coffee I  
  
guess."  
  
Ranma sat down in a chair only to bounce up a few seconds later. "I know!  
  
Hey, we all have to take that English test. Why don't we see if Steven won't get the  
  
examiner to come in and we have the meeting in English in front of him? That should  
  
satisfy the requirement."  
  
"Two mind with a single thought."; Steven's laughing voice preceded him  
  
through the door. "This is Mr. Thomas. He's going to sit in on our meeting; which we  
  
will be holding in English, thank you."  
  
Mr. Thomas looked around at the group. "My name is Mr. Thomas; I'm the  
  
English language examiner. I'm not going to test you on a lot of fancy vocabulary; all I  
  
expect of you is the ability to carry on an intelligent conversation. Is there any  
  
coffee?"  
  
Coffee was brought by Dorie and passed around.   
  
"Have some coffee Ranma?"  
  
All the teens yelped or shouted some form of no.  
  
"Huh? He can't have coffee? Why not?" Doris was confused; she knew  
  
most of the teens preferred tea but they drank coffee too.  
  
Kuno explained the effect of too much coffee on Ranma.  
  
"I'll put it this way. Last week Ranma had two double mochas and a piece of  
  
cake; and believe me, the devastation of Ranma on a caffeine and sugar fueled high  
  
equals the effects of C-4 on a wooden bridge. Give him something caffeine free, like  
  
herbal tea . . . or a sedative."  
  
Everyone laughed including Ranma.  
  
Steven started a run down of current business by announcing that the  
  
"Deamondex" had been compiled but they were having problems. Every entry had  
  
been contributed by people who had just sent in every thing they could think of.   
  
"So here we are. We have several entries for the same critter. How we are  
  
going to sort them out I don't know; it's the same thing but with slightly different  
  
descriptions and different names. Any suggestions?"  
  
Everyone looked around hesitant to make a stupid suggestion. Mr. Thomas  
  
wrote in his book.  
  
Ranma got up and paced around the table.   
  
"Ranma would you please sit down? You're making us all nervous." Steven  
  
was having trouble sitting himself. He and Ranma were very much alike; they both  
  
thought better on the move.  
  
"Matte. Shimatta . . . Ch' Nani . . . nani? I can't think. Something . . . "  
  
Suddenly Ranma smacked himself in the head; "Got it."  
  
"What we need is a definitive set of descriptive . . . " Ranma switched to  
  
Japanese. "Scuse me?! I talk like I was taught by my Sensai, my English is good."  
  
Everyone had been staring at him open mouthed.  
  
Ranma looked at Steven and Mr. Thomas "Somethin' wrong? K'so! I forgot  
  
we're supposed to only speak English. Shimaimasen . . . I mean I'm sorry . . . won't  
  
happen again."  
  
Mr. Thomas just shrugged "I don't expect you all to only speak Japanese; I  
  
just expect you to be understandable when you use English. Go on with your ideas . .  
  
. please."  
  
Steven nodded and started taking notes. He'd long ago decided when Ranma  
  
spoke in that tone of voice even he should pay attention. Ranma wasn't stupid by any  
  
means.  
  
"Uh . . . lost my train of thought. Oh . . . yeah . . . why not use biological  
  
Latin? Get some biologists to name everything; go through the files and just name  
  
stuff. You can't have two different descriptions when you use Latin. Translating from  
  
every language these guys all used to English has messed up things royally but in Latin  
  
tessellated is tessellated, ya know? What cha think? Then all ya have t' do is sort then  
  
delete duplicate records . . . by hand I think. Just in case of translation errors making  
  
two different 'contacts' sound the same and get some game freaks to work up some  
  
visuals for the 'dex. Also we need to classify these things . . . I had an idea about  
  
that too."  
  
"If you can shoot it call it vermin; if you can't but you can kill it with chi  
  
attacks it's a critter; if it can't be killed by anything but brute force it's a grizzly. What  
  
cha think?"  
  
Everyone just stared at Ranma for a few seconds. Then they started a heated  
  
discussion of the ins and outs of exactly what needed to be done. Everyone liked the  
  
idea of Latin since it was a dead language and everyone agreed on the meaning of  
  
each word used; so that was an in.  
  
But the meeting rapidly degenerated into a shouting match when they tried to  
  
decide what to do about pictures of the Contacts. Ryouga thought good illustrations  
  
should be used; Kuno insisted that only photos would do; while Ranma was all for  
  
computer generated pictures if real photos weren't available.  
  
Steven finally broke it up by shouting "Shimatta, nan da kor'ya? Urusai!!  
  
You're acting like a bunch of spoiled kids. We use them all just as long as we get  
  
something that works." He took a deep breath then said, "Wauri. All this wrangling  
  
gets on my nerves. We still have a lot to go over and we're wasting time."  
  
Mr. Thomas closed his note book and looked around. "You people are just  
  
down right scary. Talking about things that 'go bump in the night' like they were  
  
cockroaches or something. I'll pass you all in English; I haven't heard better in a long  
  
time. Just don't kill each other." He left laughing softly.  
  
His interruption cooled things off and they all got back to business.  
  
Next, Ryouga had some ideas about how to get them integrated with the  
  
Grunts.   
  
"I believe I'm one of the stupidest men alive for not thinking of it myself."  
  
Steven nodded to Ryouga. "He says we should let the Grunts shoot anything that is  
  
shootable and save ourselves for the things that don't die that easily; I agree with him  
  
100%. It gives the men something they can be proud of and takes part of the load off  
  
us."  
  
"The other thing he suggested is that you all should train with an established  
  
strike team. That would mean breaking you up for a while but I think he's right; you  
  
need to work with an established team to see how it works. I don't like breaking you  
  
up but it's the only thing that makes sense. Any objections?"  
  
There were plenty but everyone saw the reasoning behind the idea and  
  
agreed; with some reservations.   
  
Ryouga and Ranma both came up with the same one; the girls. How would  
  
they work with a bunch of men? But Steven had already worked this out too. Sunny  
  
wasn't combat personnel she was a Healer and stayed behind the lines. Leela would  
  
be working with an all female strike team. "And believe me when I say they're as  
  
good as the men. I would trust any of them at my back . . . and I wouldn't want to  
  
meet them in the dark if they were pissed at me."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Matte Wait  
  
Nani What  
  
K'so Shit  
  
Shimainasen I'm sorry  
  
Nan da Kor'ya What the fuck's this?  
  
Urusai Shut Up!  
  
Wauri My bad  
  
Wow!Once I got my head out of my ass I think I did a better job of Akane Ranma  
  
Goku 905041 you really helped me out. Thanks man! 


	20. chapter 21

I keep forgetting the Disclaimer. If I've told ya once I've told ya a million times I  
  
don't own Ranma.  
  
Chapter 21  
  
I have thankfully recovered my files thanks to Dale so here's another chapter. Sorry it  
  
took me so long. New computer up. Old one trashed and nerves shot.  
  
I'm not real familiar with Strike Team organization so if I have anything wrong please  
  
tell me and I'll fix it in the next rewrite.

Also the spacing is screwed up but I can't figure out what's wrong sorry about that too.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
XXXX  
  
The next week was interesting for Ranma and the strike team he joined. The  
  
first day started out with...  
  
"Damnit, he's just a little kid. How the hell are we gonna fight and protect him  
  
too? What's the matter with those idiot's upstairs. Well.. hell.. let's introduce  
  
ourselves an' see what's up."  
  
"Ok.. Uh.. you speak English kid?" At Ranmas nod he continued, "I'm  
  
Sergeant Jake Conroy; I'm commanding officer; this is Spc. Dave Peck; Spc. Ron  
  
Rio; Communications Specialist Pete Franklin; Private Douglas Sam; and Private  
  
Skeeter Jones; Medic. We're all Marines detached from SpecOps. last week; and  
  
you are?"  
  
Ranma shook hands all round. "Saotome Ranma, You can call me Ranma."   
  
Ranma wasn't expecting the Americans to understand Japanese naming  
  
conventions and settled for getting them to call him Ranma instead of letting them find  
  
out that they'd been calling him by his last name. Americans were funny about using  
  
given names.  
  
"Ok, Ranma; we need to get you suited up. We want ya t' feel you're part of  
  
the team and the first thing is t' get ya a proper uniform."  
  
"Nice knife. SP-24 isn't it? Know how to use it? I'm a qualified instructor if  
  
ya want a training session."  
  
Ranma took the offer in the spirit it was offered. "Naw, I'd probably hurt ya.  
  
I'm pretty good. I'm a George so I'm competent in all forms of unarmed and bruit  
  
force weapons; sharps, soft and hard."  
  
All six men looked at him funny.  
  
"Nani? Nani yo? Don't tell me I'm gonna have trouble already. I'm good I  
  
tell ya! Want me t' prove it? I'll be glad t' but if someone gets hurt it won't be me."  
  
Ranma wasn't taking separation from his group as well as he'd hoped he could. He  
  
was going to have to rely on these men for at least a month and he was starting out  
  
wrong.  
  
"Matte... matte. Shimaimasen. I... damnit, I'm sorry. I just ..I hate it when  
  
people treat me like a kid! I'm older than I look; and I'm good at what I do. So...  
  
can we go back?" Ranma was hoping that his apology would get him some  
  
recognition; it did.  
  
"Shit! We're sorry too. The Boss said we had to give you a chance but;  
  
damnit, you look younger than my kid brother. He's fourteen. How old are you?"  
  
Sergeant Conroy was doing all the talking so as not to confuse the kid by too many  
  
people chattering at him at one time.  
  
Ranma winced; fourteen? "I'm sixteen plus." Ranma pulled his pigtail.  
  
"Damnit we've got t' work this out. We have t' learn t' work together. It's not gonna  
  
work if we keep gettin' into pissin' contests at the drop of a hat. I'll tell ya what; just  
  
treat me like I'm your age. If I can't keep up I'll tell ya and if ya can't keep up with  
  
me, holler; how's that?"  
  
Everybody nodded and Conroy said "Ok, sounds good t' me. Come on; we  
  
need t' get ya GI. That's Government Issue. We'll get ya all the same equipment and  
  
stuff we've got."  
  
After over an hour Ranma was equipped with a full foot locker of G.I.; just  
  
like the other members of 'his' team. He didn't think he would use half of it but the  
  
Supply Sergeant had insisted. And if Samuels said he needed it he'd take it.   
  
"Here let me help you with that; it's got to be heavy." The bigger man  
  
reached out to take one handle of the locker. "Naw, I got it. Thanks... Uh...Rio is it?"  
  
Ranma hoisted the locker onto his shoulder and looked up at the man. "Where do we  
  
go from here?"  
  
"Barracks are this way; we'll get you a bunk and settled in. Are you hungry?  
  
You sure you don't need help? Sarg will skin me if he see's you hauling that and I'm  
  
not helping."  
  
Ranma grinned at Rio. "Here... I carried it half way.... now you carry it. I  
  
don't think it would be easy for us to carry it together; you're too tall."  
  
"Oh yeah? Maybe you're too short. Damn that's heavy!" Rio staggered  
  
slightly at the weight of the locker. {This kid's carrying the damn thing by himself and  
  
I can barley manage. I'm twice his size. Holy shit!}  
  
After settling Ranma in, the whole team headed for the mess hall. Ranma  
  
settled in with a tray and begin to eat.   
  
As he shoveled food into his mouth Ranma decided he'd better get what he  
  
privately call the Rules of Living with Ran-chan out in the open. It was almost too  
  
late. Skeeter reached out towards Ranma's tray; to offer him a piece of bread; but  
  
Ranma reacted like he always did. He covered his tray and snarled at Skeeter like a  
  
junk yard dog.   
  
"Hey! Geeze, I only wanted to give you this bread! What the hell's wrong  
  
with you? You act like you've been starved." All the men were giving Ranma funny  
  
looks. "I heard about you getting in a fight with some guy over grub but I thought it  
  
was just a Latrine-o-gram."  
  
"Well... I am a little...lot touchy about food. I've always had to fight my Pop  
  
off my food and then ... well you don't need the gory details just .... Uh. I'm not sure  
  
how to put this..." Ranma stammered to a halt; these guys were going to think he was  
  
crazy no matter what he said.  
  
"Hell Ranma-san just spit it out, we're all old war horses here; if you got a  
  
twitch ;we need to know about it." The entire team was looking at him; just waiting  
  
for him to work up the nerve to get on with his story.  
  
"Ok... I'm pretty fucked up in the head. You can't touch my food, period.... I  
  
shouldn't even eat in the mess. And you can't slap me on the back or touch me  
  
unexpectedly."   
  
Just then a man who mistook Ranma for someone else slapped him on the  
  
back. Ranma's reaction was to turn around and grab him by the throat. He let go just  
  
as suddenly as he grabbed him and sat down panting.   
  
"Sorry...Sorry... I.."  
  
The offender just apologized too; "Hey! Wrong guy.... thought you was  
  
someone else... didn't know you were in heavy combat. No, I'm ok; he let go before  
  
any damage was done." The man hurried off rubbing his throat.  
  
"See... maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I need t' go back and talk t' ..."  
  
Ranma started to get back up and find Steven.  
  
"No ya don't! We see what ya mean. Damnit, I've seen vets who spent years  
  
in Viet Nam who acted just like that and some a' us aren't much better. Or any  
  
worse... whatever. We'll just have t' deal with it. Where did ya see combat? And  
  
how long were ya there?"  
  
Ranma sighed he didn't want to tell these men his sorry tale; he didn't want  
  
them to pity him or think he was a freak.   
  
Specialist Peck interrupted "Hey Sarg; give the kid a break. He's just had a  
  
real scare and he doesn't need a bunch a' strangers pressurin' him t' tell things he  
  
obviously doesn't want t'. Let him finish eatin' in peace; why don't cha?"  
  
Everyone went back to eating; thinking their own thoughts.  
  
Ranma followed the others back to the barracks. He looked at the bunk he'd  
  
been given, it was too close to the other men so he decided to move to a different  
  
bunk.  
  
"Can I take this bunk instead a' that one. I have nightmares and I don't want  
  
t' wake everyone up. I tend t' scream."  
  
"Hell... take any bunk ya want; but if you're a screamer just stay where ya  
  
are, you'll wake us all up no matter what. Ya scream around a bunch a' guys like us  
  
and we're all awake and ready t' fight off the baddies. Ya know?"  
  
Ranma did, so he decided to stay where he was; he was beginning to think  
  
that this was going to work out.   
  
"Here, you remember me? I'm Doug Sam. We need t' get you fitted with this  
  
vest. If it isn't fitted just right you'll be sorry. Ya wear it in all trainin' exercises and  
  
especially in combat. After that we'll fit your equipment harness. After this you'll be  
  
expected t' fit and care for it yourself. Ok? Any questions you have; ask as we go  
  
along."  
  
Ranma allowed himself to be fitted with a vest and something called an Alice  
  
harness. It was fairly comfortable and he saw that everyone else had the same gear  
  
within easy reach. {They're paranoid as I am} Then came the hard part; Doug  
  
started fitting Ranma with a holster but he knew he had no business with any kind of  
  
gun.  
  
"I don't need that. I don't know anything about guns. That's your  
  
department. I'm more the hack and slash guy." Ranma watched as all the men  
  
looked at him like he'd lost his mind.  
  
"If ya can't use a gun what the hell are ya doin' on a strike team? How are  
  
ya... No matter... maybe that's one a' the reasons you're here. We'll take ya over t'  
  
the range and teach ya right now. Come on. Here; I'll carry your issue until we get  
  
there."  
  
"By the way; I really respect that ya admitted ya don't know about guns; that  
  
was really good work."  
  
On the way Ranma was filled in on the Glock 10mm he would be carrying; as  
  
well as the AK-47 T5. Ranma was doubtful of his need for any kind of fire arm but  
  
the guys seemed so happy to have the opportunity to show off their equipment he just  
  
went along with it.  
  
At the outdoor firing range the first thing they did was go over gun safety;  
  
twice. Both weapons were explained fully and carefully; safeties were shown and  
  
Ranma was drilled for over an hour. Take it apart; put it together; show safeties and  
  
do it again. He found that he was more interested in guns than he realized.  
  
"Ready t' shoot?" Sarge asked handing Ranma a clip. "Ya got fifteen rounds  
  
here. With one in the chamber that's sixteen chances t' do damage. What d' ya  
  
think?"  
  
"I think anyone who carries a gun around with one in the chamber had better  
  
be going into combat in very short order." Ranma knew that there were three safeties  
  
on the Glock and two on the AK-47 T5 but he was now aware that the best safety  
  
was using his head.  
  
Damn; Ki..."  
  
Ranma interrupted, "Look... I know you're just tryin' t' be friendly... but that  
  
just sets my teeth on edge. I'm too old t' be called kid and too young t' be called  
  
much else. Could ya just stick t' Ranma?"  
  
"Yeah... Ranma' I'm sorry; you're right. Anyway... I've met grown men with  
  
less sense than you. Come up t' the firing line; put on your gear. Remember.... that  
  
thing is gonna kick so be ready t' get it back down for your second shot. It's not  
  
unusual for your second shot; and third t' go over the target completely so don't be  
  
disappointed if there's only one hole in the target. Only fire three shots!"  
  
"Ok... I got it... only three... space them... be ready for recoil." Ranma  
  
summarized his instructions and then he took his first shot.   
  
It was loud but the head gear filtered out the explosion without making it  
  
necessary to take it off to talk. The second shot was easy and the third even easier.  
  
He was using a two handed grip with his left hand under the butt of the pistol. It was  
  
easy to control the bucking hand gun; he wondered why they seemed to think he  
  
would miss two out of three shots.  
  
"Not bad... I think you at least hit the paper... lets take a look." Jake  
  
activated the target track and brought the target up to the bench. "Frag me! Would ya  
  
look at that? He hit all three times right on the X. I thought ya said ya never shot a  
  
weapon before. How'd ya do that."  
  
All the men just examined the paper with astonishment. Ranma had hit the  
  
bull's eye right in the center; the only reason you could tell that he'd hit three times  
  
was because even Ranma couldn't hit exactly the same spot. The edges of the bullet  
  
hole were clipped, showing where all three bullets had entered the target at slightly  
  
different places.  
  
"Uuummm! Martial artist here? Hand eye coordination a big must? It's just a  
  
different use of skills I've already learned. I can throw stuff and hit the target. It's not  
  
much different."  
  
Ranma grinned as the men all made a big deal of him. It was nice; for once  
  
some one gave him a 'well done' instead of getting on his case about some little thing.  
  
"Thanks guys. Can I shoot some more? This is fun. What else can I shoot?  
  
Can I try the AK-47 5 please?" Ranma was going for it. If these guys were interested  
  
in teaching; he was going to learn, you never knew when something might come in  
  
handy.  
  
After firing the AK-47 T5 and proving that he was just as good with it;  
  
Ranma realized that it was getting late and he was hungry; so they packed up their  
  
range bags and headed for the mess.  
  
In the mess Ranma noticed that the team seated him between Rio and Pete  
  
with his back to a wall.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
XXXXXXXXX  
  
The next day was uneventful in a busy sort of way. Ranma worked out early;  
  
just telling his new teammates that he was going and would be back in time for  
  
breakfast. After eating breakfast they all went to the Training area.   
  
Ranma was taught how to put on and take off free rappel harness. His first  
  
few questions had pissed off the Jump Master. His lecture had included a list of what  
  
could happen if you just jumped out of a helicopter at 150 feet and an opinion of  
  
Ranma's intelligence which offended him.  
  
"Look... I don't know how you do this insertion thing. I just know what I can  
  
do and I can jump out of a fifth story window and land without rolling! Ya want me t'  
  
prove it I will; but you're right about one thing my Pop is a Konoyarou no baka.  
  
Let's get back t' business."  
  
The Jump Master gave up and just ran Ranma through procedures again and  
  
had him do some free rappels from a tower. After Ranma did several he decided to  
  
prove his point by jumping from the top of the tower; which proved the point that he  
  
could jump free and stick a landing; but the Jump Master yelled at him anyway.  
  
"Stupid little shit. Ya sprain an ankle and we'll be behind schedule waiting for ya t'  
  
heal. And don't scare me like that; Danmit!"  
  
As they were heading back to the Barracks after rappel practice Pete asked  
  
Ranma what he'd meant the day before when he'd said he was good with soft  
  
weapons. So Ranma explained about rope darts, flails with balls, fans, manriki and  
  
chain whips  
  
"I'm good with all a' them. I practiced with manriki as soon as I could hold  
  
one and as I got bigger Pop trained me with bigger weapons. Would you like me t'  
  
demonstrate? I gotta rope dart and a chain whip in my stuff back at the barracks."   
  
Ranma decided to show them that he wasn't untrained in weapons just  
  
trained in different ones than they were familiar with.  
  
When they got back to the barracks Ranma got out a rope dart made from a  
  
small piece of machined steel and fastened to a cord made of silk. He took it outside  
  
and began a kata with it; starting with some simple swinging attacks he moved on to  
  
thrown attacks and then to attacks which used the force of a swing to snap the dart  
  
out from the angle of the arc using centripetal force to multiply the attack by several  
  
degrees.  
  
"Wow ,did ya see that? Ya could kill someone with that thing and stay outa  
  
reach. Can ya teach us that?"  
  
Ranma shrugged; "Yeah, I suppose so. If ya want t' spend four or five hours  
  
a day for about three years just working with soft weapons I suppose I could get ya  
  
up t' my level. Ya gotta be careful with this kinda' weapon. They're the hardest t'  
  
master. Pole arms an' swords an' throwin' pins an' stars; they're easy because ya  
  
aim them but soft weapons ya gotta have a knack for. Pop beat it into me early so  
  
I'm good. Didn't have a choice."  
  
Rio looked at Ranma and replied for everyone. "Takes that long t' get good?  
  
Forget it. I'll stick t' my gun....But don't joke about your Pop."  
  
Ranma decided not to make an issue of it.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
XXXX  
  
The third day it happened; Ranma the Shit Magnet was right where he should  
  
be when the old jump tower collapsed on several men who were sitting under it;  
  
against direct orders.  
  
Everyone within ear shot converged on the spot. You could hear men  
  
groaning and screaming as the weight of the tower's rubble settled and began to crush  
  
them.  
  
Men started to climb on to the pile to try removing the mass of timbers and  
  
angle iron.   
  
"NO! No! Get off. You'll make it settle and crush them."   
  
Ranma knew what he was talking about; Japan is subject to earthquakes on  
  
an alarmingly regular basis so he and some of the other men were aware of the  
  
problems of collapsing structures.  
  
"We have to figure out where the victims are and brace the rubble so it  
  
doesn't settle before we try to remove it. Everyone start out around the edges and try  
  
to locate them."  
  
"Hey... Ryouga... start a hand to hand. There're some sand bags over there.  
  
We can use them to brace up this mess when we find someone. I'll crawl in and ...I  
  
hear someone now... get busy."  
  
Ranma crawled into the mess on his belly. The chances that he would be  
  
crushed too were high enough that he didn't want to think about them; but what could  
  
he do, these men needed help and he was one of the few small enough to get in and  
  
find them.   
  
What if they needed immediate medical attention? He wasn't the best; but he  
  
could keep them from bleeding out before they could get them to a real medic.  
  
He reached the man he had heard groaning. "Hey.... what's your problem?  
  
Where does it hurt you?"  
  
Ranma felt along the man's body; as much of it as he could reach. He wasn't  
  
cut anywhere but the rubble was crushing him to death.  
  
"Can't breath." The man was struggling for air; desperately trying to get his  
  
compressed lungs to expand.  
  
"Ok, buddy. I'll take care a' that. Don't worry about a thing! We got cha."  
  
Ranma crawled out and piled up several sand bags; he crawled back in  
  
pushing them ahead of himself. Several trips gave him enough bags to pile under the  
  
beam crushing the man. He knew that this wasn't the wisest thing to do but he  
  
couldn't let the man die.  
  
First, he piled the bags under the beam as high as he could go with out  
  
touching the beam directly. Then, making sure the rest of the bags were within reach;  
  
he braced his back under the beam and lifted it by straightening his legs. Piling more  
  
bags under the lifted beam; he watched the now semi-conscious man to see if he was  
  
breathing better. He was; so Ranma crawled out and looked around.  
  
One of the older NCO's had organized the group of men. They were now  
  
working around the edges of the mess; removing the rubble, taking care not to make  
  
the pile shift or settle.   
  
Ranma approached the man, "How we doin'? Gettn' anywhere? I got that  
  
guy over there set so he won't get crushed." Ranma showed the NCO where the  
  
man was. "What cha need me t' do now?"  
  
The NCO looked at Ranma; he knew who he was and so he shook his head.  
  
"Don't know. We're in deep shit. We need a crane but it can't get here for another  
  
hour, by then this mess will have settled enough to crush at least two men. I see what  
  
ya did for Charlie but we got three others trapped in the middle a' that mess. It's like  
  
Pickup Stix. Move one and half dozen others shift. I wish we could get an overview  
  
but all the choppers are away. Damnit! We're gonna loose men."  
  
Ranma hollered at Ryouga to come over. "Look... I know you won't believe  
  
this but we can get an over view. Ya just have t' trust what we tell ya. We'll save  
  
these guys."  
  
"Ryouga you take first jump and I'll follow ya. Then we'll compare notes  
  
and figure this out."  
  
The NCO watched in amazement as Ryouga then Ranma jumped over the  
  
whole mess then put their heads together. After some argument they both jumped  
  
back over and Ranma told the NCO, "There's no way you can do this anyway but  
  
from the top. I'm not sure what those stick things you were talkin' about are but that  
  
pile is jumbled to hell and back; if ya move the wrong thing it's all gonna collapse on  
  
those guys and kill 'em all."  
  
"Ryouga and I are gonna climb t' the top and start pulling it apart. We're light  
  
enough we shouldn't make it settle too much."   
  
At the NCO's disbelieveing face he snarled, "What are we gonna do? Just  
  
wait around for it to mash 'em with out at least trying? Get someone t' crawl in and  
  
check that the pile isn't settlin'. If we start t' make it shift give a yell. Otherwise we're  
  
doin' it wether ya like it or not."  
  
Ranma and Ryouga climbed to the top of the mess and started to remove the  
  
heavy wooden beams and iron work. Motioning for everyone in one area to move  
  
they just started throwing the wreckage into the field beside them.   
  
It took them almost an hour of hard work to get the pile reduced to its  
  
component parts. As they reached someone they stopped long enough for the medics  
  
to stabilize the man and get him out then they went on.   
  
The other men helped by removing everything small enough for them to lift.  
  
Passing pieces of rubble hand-to-hand and piling it out of the way. Some was used to  
  
shore up the larger pieces to keep the pile stabilized enough to prevent it collapsing  
  
on the trapped men.  
  
"OK! hey! Stop! That's the last man. Ranma give it up. Come on." Franklin  
  
pulled on Ranma's arm to get him to let go of the beam he was trying to lift alone.  
  
Ranma focused on Franklin, "Huh? Oh, good I don't think I could lift this  
  
alone; I need Ryouga to help, but if they're all out the fucker can just sit." Ranma  
  
staggered out of the remains of the tower behind his comrade. "Damn I'm tired. I  
  
could use a drink, too"  
  
Ranma started to sit down but made it only as far as bending his knees a little.  
  
"Shit! Where's Ryu? I need to see if he's ok. " Ranma looked around; seeing Ryouga  
  
sitting a little way away he walked over and sat down beside him.  
  
"Good team work, Ryu. I couldn't have lifted some of that stuff by myself  
  
and kept the whole mess from collapsing at the same time. Thanks. ... Hey! what the  
  
hell happened t' your hands they're all bloody."  
  
Ryouga held his hands out. They were raw meat; cut, blistered and bloody.  
  
He'd torn them up handling splintered beams and sharp metal.  
  
"Samething that happened t' yours. You're no better off than I am."  
  
Just then one of the men from Ryouga's temporary team saw them.  
  
"MEDIC!! Over here! Now! Men down! Damnit, you two! Don't you idiots  
  
have gloves?"  
  
The man took Ryouga's hands in his and swore some more; Ranma was glad  
  
to see that Ryouga's teammates took care of him.  
  
He was to find out that his teammates were just as concerned. "Frag me!  
  
Damnit, I knew I forgot something. I forgot t' get ya any gloves... shit! This is all my  
  
fault... Ranma why didn't ya say something?" Sam was on a complete blame me  
  
party "Here; let's wash off some of the blood and dirt."  
  
Ranma sat down on the ground and tried to clench his fists, he didn't want  
  
anyone touching him but Sunny. But when he tried to close his hands he realized he  
  
had splinters everywhere; which made closing his hands painful, so he just let them  
  
hang between his knees.  
  
"Don't touch me. I'll wait for Sunny."   
  
Two Medics arrived just then, "What we got? Damn! Raw meat. You kids  
  
didn't have gloves? What the hell? I can't do anything with this. His hands are full of  
  
splinters, cut t' hell and blistered on top a' that. We got t' get him t' the ER."  
  
"No!" Ranma jerked away from the Medic. "I want Sunny. No one else  
  
touches me. Ever. Get Sunny."  
  
Ranma was starting to really hurt now and didn't want anyone touching him.  
  
Ryouga was in much the same fix and he didn't want anyone else touching him either  
  
"Ok, I know you guys are special. We'll get Sunny for ya. Just hang in there."  
  
The Medic spoke into the repeater mic. attached to his vest. "She'll be here... five  
  
minutes. She told me t' tell you t' let me run some saline over your hands Try t' wash  
  
off some a' the debris. Hold still will ya?"  
  
Ranma had herd Sunny over the man's earpiece "Ok, just don't mess with  
  
it."  
  
The Medic opened a saline bag with his knife and started to pour the contents  
  
over Ranma's hands; it stung.  
  
"Iiiittaaii! Shimatta! K'so!!" Ranma swore at the pain. "Damnit, just stop. It  
  
hurts." The Medic just got hold of Ranma by his right wrist.  
  
"I know soldier. It's got t' hurt but if she shows up and I ain't done what she  
  
said it's my ass in a sling not yours so hold still and let me do my job." The Medic let  
  
go of Ranma's right wrist and took the left. Treating his left hand to a dose of the  
  
saline brought about a spate of swearing; in English this time   
  
"Well mister; I don't know about you but if I talked like that at your age my  
  
Mother would'a washed my mouth out with soap." The Medic was hoping to distract  
  
Ranma from the pain and just said what popped into his head first.  
  
Ranma's reply stunned his team mates. "Na! I haven't seen my Mom since I  
  
was six. She probably wouldn't care. All she cares about is if I'm manly enough to  
  
avoid her making me commit Sepuku. Where's Sunny?"  
  
No one could think of a thing to say.  
  
Sunny showed up in time to break up any more discussion.  
  
"Ran-chan, what the hell have you been doing. Your hands are full of ..."  
  
Ranma interrupted Sunny before she could get any farther, "Ryu first, he's  
  
worse off than me. I think he broke a finger... fix him up. No, don't argue with me  
  
just do it.! You're not touching me until he's done."  
  
Sunny didn't argue with Ranma; she just took care of Ryouga first, even  
  
though Ranma was worse off by far. She knew he wouldn't go first he was a good  
  
officer; my men, then me. Period.  
  
When she got to Ranma he was laying on his back gritting his teeth and  
  
holding his hands across his chest; trying not to touch anything. Sunny took his hands  
  
in hers, "Here... one of you help him sit up. I need him vertical for this; I can't see  
  
from this angle... Ok, that's good."  
  
Conroy had lifted Ranma to sit braced against the bigger man's chest. As  
  
Ranma leaned back he got a really good look at his hands; they were cut, scraped  
  
and bloody; the cuts were also full of dirt and ground in rust and who knew what else;  
  
they were also peppered with splinters.  
  
"Son-of-a-bitch, Ranma." He sputtered to a stop; Sunny was healing Ranma.  
  
The dirt and rust was oozing out of the cuts like pus; then the splinters popped out of  
  
Ranma's flesh dropping to the ground. The cuts and blisters healed over as if they had  
  
never been.  
  
"I better go to the ER. Mom probably needs my help with the rest of the  
  
men. That's where I was headed when they called me. Ran-chan? Get some gloves,  
  
Koi no baka."  
  
Sunny hurried away never realizing what she had said.  
  
Ranma stared after her with a stunned expression on his face.


	21. Chapter 22

Disclaimer You know the drill.  
  
chapter 22  
  
Ranma couldn't believe it had been seven days since he'd joined the team.   
  
He'd teased them calling them Conroy-gumi but they had just thrown rolled up  
  
sox and T-shirts and such at him and called him Ranma-sama-dono.   
  
All in all he'd found plenty of interest in the last seven days. He'd learned how  
  
to shoot an AK-47 and a Glock 10mm; he learned how to free rappel from a  
  
helicopter and how to wear body armor and use all the electronic equipment that made  
  
the job so much easier by keeping them in contact with each other.   
  
He'd found that the men he'd scorned were just as good at their jobs as he was  
  
at his. They had been working at cross purposes, each group trying to protect the other  
  
from themselves. So it had been a busy week.  
  
Now, however, Ranma was bored.   
  
Just before sundown they'd been dropped in the middle of nowhere in the  
  
mountains north of Nerima. Ranma was faintly familiar with the area. It was farther in  
  
than he'd been in a long time so he was happy. The challenge was to use GPS and their  
  
survival skills to get back to base. But they couldn't start until after midnight and they  
  
couldn't travel during the day, so they were waiting and Ranma hated waiting.  
  
"Let's just sit around and do nothing. Yeah . . . right . . . someone start a fight  
  
or something."   
  
The whole group settled in around a small fire. It wasn't much. It would  
  
probably have fit in a large rice bowl but was fire and it was comfort.   
  
Everyone except Ranma had been together for years so they knew each others  
  
stories pat. but Ranma was fair game; so they began to question him like they would  
  
anyone who joined their group. They had been too busy and too distracted by training  
  
and the need for food and sleep during the last week but now everyone was just sitting,  
  
anything for entertainment.  
  
"Hey! I've got my harp, want to hear somethin'? Ranma, what kind a' music  
  
do ya like? I can't play that techno crap you kids like but I can manage almost anything  
  
else." Pete Franklin pulled a harmonica out of a pocket and tapped it in his hand.  
  
Ranma was laying flat on his back with his hands under his head. "I'd like to  
  
hear some American folk music. I've heard it's really beautiful."  
  
Ranma started doing vertical leg crunches; his legs straight up in the air at a  
  
ninety-degree angle to his body.   
  
Pete played "Early One Morning" while Doug sang.  
  
"Hey, that's good. Play me another?"  
  
"Naw! Turn about's fair play. We entertained you, now ya gotta do the same.  
  
Tell us how ya got here. You're too young t' have come from military so . . . what  
  
gives?" Doug looked up for the first time. Ranma was slightly outside of the circle and  
  
no one had been paying particular attention to what he was doing. "How long have ya  
  
been doin' that?"  
  
"Since ya started playin'. I'm not much for just sittn' around waitin' . . . makes  
  
me nervous." Ranma changed to doing push ups; one handed.  
  
"Shit! Ranma, take a break and come talk t' us we haven't had time t' just  
  
shoot the shit . . . we've been too busy trainin' and teach-in' ya about all the equipment  
  
and ya spent some time learning how to use that Deamondex thing. So spill. What's  
  
your story? Unless ya think you're too good t' gossip with a bunch a' Grunts."   
  
Conroy knew all his men wanted to know more about Ranma but every time  
  
they got time to sit around and gossip Ranma had found some reason to get out of it.  
  
Even studying for a calculus test for God's sake.  
  
Ranma had wanted to avoid this but now he was trapped. He didn't want the  
  
men to know about his Pop and other stuff but he knew he was going to have to tell  
  
them something and he couldn't bring himself to lie.  
  
"Ok! I know you're all curious so . . . I'll make ya a deal. Ya start a subject . .  
  
. everyone tells a story including me. But I get t' go last . . . and none a' that how did  
  
ya lose your virginity shit! That's none a' your business."  
  
"Fair enough."   
  
Most of the questions were the usual stuff; your most embarrassing moment;  
  
favorite movies that kind of thing. Ranma answered their questions while still exercising.  
  
He was nervous.   
  
Finally Dave and Rio sat on him as he was doing standard push ups.  
  
"This'll get ya. Now ya have t' be still." Rio was sitting on Ranma's shoulders  
  
and Doug on his bottom.   
  
Ranma turned his head slightly to look out of the corner of his eye. He smirked  
  
at the men sitting on him.  
  
"How much do ya weigh, Big Guy.? You and Dave together." Ranma still had  
  
his hands flat on the ground, ready to push up.  
  
"Rio, you weigh in at about . . . two fifty? And I weigh two hundred exactly so  
  
both of us weight in at four fifty Why . . . eeepppps!"  
  
Ranma continued to do push ups with both men on his back.  
  
"Stop . . . Stop! We give . . . let us off before we fall off. We just want you to  
  
join the circle, Baka Deshi!" The men rolled off Ranma laughing.  
  
"What'd you call me?" Ranma narrowed his eyes jokingly. "I'm not your  
  
student even if I am foolish. Where'd you learn Japanese? Anime?"  
  
"Yeah, you talk good English but you swear in Japanese so we're never sure  
  
what you're calling us. So we kinda asked around. We're too new to have gotten the  
  
Japanese courses yet."  
  
Ranma gave them a short run down on Japanese swearing ending, "Stick t'  
  
English. Most Japanese people speak fair English. We have to take a foreign language  
  
in school and most take English. It helps get a good job since English is the most  
  
international language. You people are impossible when it comes to learning anything  
  
but . . . " Ranma ducked a barrage of soft missiles laughing. "Ok . . . Ok . . . Pax!...  
  
Pax!... Warui . . . Sorry, my bad. Help!"  
  
They all jumped Ranma rolling him in the dirt and laughing. Ranma stood up and  
  
dumped them all on the ground. Bringing about the next question aimed only at him.  
  
"Damnit, how did you get to be so strong? You're incredible."  
  
"I think a lot of it's genetic. My Pop is really strong too. And my Mom from  
  
what I've heard. On top of that I've been training since I can remember. Push ups by  
  
the time I could crawl and when I started to walk I had to run. Kata as soon as I could  
  
remember the moves. As well as weapons. So I've got to be good. Pop beat it into me  
  
early."  
  
"Your Mom let your Dad get away with that shit? She let him beat you? I can't  
  
believe it."   
  
Conroy took over the questioning as he usually did. He knew his men well  
  
enough to know what they would want to know and it kept the confusion down.  
  
Besides they'd discussed this before now.  
  
"My Mom . . . well, uh . . . I haven't seen her more than two or three times  
  
since I was born. Pop took me off training when I was still a baby. She made some  
  
oath with him. I'd grow up t' be a man among men or we'd both commit Seppuku."  
  
Ranma made a face of disgust.  
  
"Seppuku . . . what's that? I never heard of it." All the men stared at Ranma  
  
wondering why he looked so disgusted.  
  
"Oh! Americans usually hear the cruder term Hari-Kari. It's literally translated  
  
as belly cut."  
  
At their horrified expressions Ranma held out his hand's palm out. "Hey don't  
  
look like that; I'm not cuttn' my belly over somthin' my baka oni parents decided on. I  
  
wouldn't even mention it but you asked and I'm not lyin' about things."  
  
"Hell, I've heard of some nutty people but . . . Ranma . . . sorry, your parents  
  
take the cake."   
  
Conroy shook his head.  
  
Everyone else nodded, at least Ranma thought they did, it was getting very dark  
  
by now. Ranma thought it might be easier to talk now; they couldn't see him and he  
  
couldn't see them, like talking to himself.  
  
"Tell us about that Deamondex thing. What's it for? Why do we all have to  
  
have it?"  
  
Ranma got his out of his pack. I was a small laptop computer with a dedicated  
  
program. It only did two things. It had a powerful search engine and a word processor  
  
and nothing else. All it could be used for was searching the daemon data base and  
  
writing reports.  
  
He opened it and showed the team how to use it, going through it carefully and  
  
making everyone try it for themselves. He knew that he was just putting off the  
  
inevitable.  
  
"Ran-chan, you're stalling. What are you hiding? Come on! Fess up; we won't  
  
tell." Conroy had the awful feeling he wasn't going to like this much.  
  
"No fessin'; I get to ask my question first. What is your worst nightmare?"   
  
Ranma decided that he was going to go at this from the back door, sort of..  
  
Most of the guys came up with the naked in class or Mom caught them  
  
with/doing something they shouldn't; but Dave had to clear his throat several times  
  
before he told his story.   
  
"Damnit, I hate telling this! I'll probably have the dream tomorrow but . . . My  
  
brother caught his arm in an unshielded PTO shaft. It tore his arm off and he died in my  
  
arms. There wasn't enough of anything to put a tourniquet on."   
  
Dave wiped his face and glared around but he knew if he could see them, all he  
  
would see were sympathetic looks. It was dark enough that the fire was now the only  
  
light and it cast weird shadows on their faces.  
  
Ranma told his worst nightmare and ended up, "I hate killing and I'm not like  
  
that. So I don't understand it at all. That makes it even worse."  
  
He looked around at his teammates. They all had odd looks on their faces.  
  
"You mean he sold ya t' some slob for . . . that?"  
  
"No! No! I never got . . . un . . . I mean he sold me t' work a lot but never  
  
for that. That's why I don't understand why I have that dream so often."   
  
Ranma was as confused about his dream as ever, but Skeeter moved into the  
  
light a little more so Ranma could see his face better.   
  
"Sometimes it's not about physical rape; I think this one's about betrayal. He  
  
wasn't a good father and ya feel like he raped ya of your childhood or something like  
  
that. But what do I know I'm just a medic . . . although I'm a damn good one"   
  
Skeeter made a rude face; everyone laughed and made rude comments about  
  
his looks and parentage, but the tension was still thick.  
  
"Ok. Ranma you go first this time. What was the worst moment of your life? Got caught  
  
kissing someone else's girl? What?" Conroy was sure this one was fairly harmless;  
  
Ranma was so young he couldn't have a really bad worst moment.  
  
"Well, I donno' where t' start. I got more than one." Ranma gulped, if he  
  
started to cry they'd think he was a real sissy. "I'm not sure so I'll start with the first  
  
one. That was when I realized Pop had sold me to a Chain Child Agency, then there  
  
was when I got punished for the first time and when they killed that guy in front a' me  
  
and after that when I killed the other guy and then they whipped me for not doing it  
  
slower so the spectators could get their jollies and that's about it. I... damn! Shimatta!   
  
K'so! Chicushou!" Ranma wiped tears off his face. "I'll get my stuff. I can find my way  
  
by myself."  
  
"And just exactly where do ya think you're goin', young man? Sit your ass  
  
down and shut up."  
  
Ranma froze.   
  
Conroy sounded like he wanted to kill someone.  
  
Ranma sat.  
  
"Are you sitting there and telling us your old man sold ya for a slave?" Ranma  
  
nodded once, "And they punished you for . . . what?" Ranma mumbled. "What did  
  
you say, soldier, I can't hear you!" Conroy was sure they didn't really want to hear  
  
what Ranma had to say.  
  
Ranma took a deep breath; "I'm a defiant little shit when I wanna be and they  
  
decided t' torture it outa' me. They put a magical collar on me so they could hurt me  
  
without damaging the merchandise. Next question. No, I already know it. They wanted  
  
me t' be a gladiator. Kill for their amusement. I wouldn't do it so they killed my first  
  
opponent in front of me. They whipped him t' death and made me watch."  
  
Ranma choked; gagging on the memories. He found a canteen shoved into his  
  
hand and realized that all the guys had hold of him like they were afraid that he would  
  
run off on them. Which he wanted to do, badly.  
  
"Here . . . take a drink . . . be careful it's not water." Skeeter took back the  
  
canteen as Ranma fought his first taste of American whisky.  
  
"Wow! What the hell was that; on second thought never mind I got t' get this all  
  
out before I chicken out. They put me up against another guy; he came at me like a bull  
  
. . . I knew what would happen if I didn't kill him myself so I took him out with one  
  
punch to the head; smashed it like an egg. They turned on my collar and when I fell they  
  
dragged me to a different arena and hung me by my wrists and whipped me. So I guess  
  
you can see why I need t' go . . . I'm a murderer an' ya don't want me around."  
  
Ranma tugged on their hands.  
  
"Damn it t' hell. I get first dibs on Daddy. Ranma, look at us." Ranma looked  
  
around at a collection of sorrowful or furious faces. " All of us have been in fire fights . .  
  
. shooting wars. We . . . well, I never saw the people I killed and I know I have  
  
because I've seen the bodies. We all have. And we've all killed more than one person."  
  
Conroy held out a hand. "I know it's just as horrible to kill one as any other number.  
  
But we are the 'thin blue line' we do what we do so the innocent are safe. We pay the  
  
price for others peace of mind and safety. You did what you had to t' survive it's as  
  
natural as breathin' it's what keeps you breathing. Who are we t' blame you for doing  
  
the same thing we do? Stop cryin'. You'll make me too and we're not a bunch a'  
  
pansies. Here have another drink."  
  
All of a sudden everyone was looking somewhere else. Skeeter gave the  
  
canteen to the man next to him and they passed it around each man taking a sip or gulp  
  
according to their nature. Ranma steeled himself and took another small sip. It didn't  
  
taste any better the second time around.  
  
"So, now we know why you're crazy. It's what they call battle fatigue or post  
  
traumatic stress disorder. Shell shock, whatever. You gettn' help? If not I got a good  
  
man. and we know how t' deal with ya better now. Shit! How old are ya? Ya said  
  
sixteen? Man . . . at sixteen I was only worried my Mom would find my Playboy stash  
  
and if I was gittn' a zit and you're supposed t' help save the world? Damnit!"  
  
"Nother question. I'm not doubting ya so don't get me wrong but if they  
  
whipped ya why don't ya have any scars?" Skeeter felt he had to ask as they had all  
  
seen him naked in the showers.  
  
"I heal real quick and don't scar. At least my skin doesn't but ya can feel them"  
  
Ranma opened his vest enough that Skeeter could run his hand under it and his shirt.  
  
"Shit! I can feel them all right. Damnit! How can anyone do something like that  
  
especially to a kid . . . I know ya don't like t' be called a kid . . . but ya are. Even if ya  
  
are . . . like; special and all and ya look twelve when ya ain't frowning like a bastard.  
  
Makes me sick . . . I'd like t' get my hands on those pricks."  
  
At Skeeters sour expression Ranma grinned evilly.  
  
"Well ya can't. Steven got t' 'im first. Rescued me and those others; tore down  
  
the whole place. I don't remember much. I was being punished for fighting the guards  
  
so I was pretty much out of it."  
  
"They told me they had t' dart me t' get me t' quit fightin' my rescuers. Can we  
  
change the subject?"  
  
Ranma suddenly smirked. "Oh by the way. Leave my Pop alone. I don't want  
  
him dead. He's in prison; Steven caught him a while ago and they pushed the trial  
  
through so I wouldn't have to testify. A life sentence . . . let him fell how I felt. He's  
  
lucky. At least they can't beat and starve him. Oh! That's why I hate to have my food  
  
messed with. They starved me. Speaking of starved; confession may be good for the  
  
soul but it's damned hungry work too . . . so . . . feed me will ya?"  
  
The heavy atmosphere dissipated with a whiff of laughter from everybody.  
  
They'd gotten used to Ranma's appetite. He'd admitted to eating most anything.   
  
He even liked MRE's; especially the Entrees with drinks and candy; even toilet  
  
paper. But twelve hundred calories wasn't enough for him so they had made  
  
arrangements for him to be supplied with extra meals and energy bars as well.   
  
"Ranma, what won't you eat?"; Skeeter asked with a laugh.   
  
"I'll eat anything that won't eat me first. I don't know why you guys don't like  
  
MRE's; at least you don't have to run them down or dig them up for yourself."  
  
They all sat around eating and arguing about what was the most disgusting thing  
  
people ate; finally opting for grubs; while Ranma snickered at the comments he knew  
  
were aimed more at making him laugh than anything else.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"Is it midnight yet?"  
  
"Not quite but we could start gettin' ready. Kill the fire someone."  
  
Ranma stood up and sniffed. He smelled something. What was it? He sniffed  
  
again testing the air, trying to figure out why the smell was bothering him. Why would  
  
the smell of rotting hay . . .?   
  
"Damnit!! Smell that? I think we're in deep shit. Guys; we better soldier up."  
  
Ranma started patting himself down.   
  
Dave sniffed the breeze blowing in from the west. "Rotting hay? Nasty . . . but  
  
so some local left some bales to rot. So what?" Then he stiffened. "Damn, its too high  
  
altitude for hay and too rocky around here. Ranma, what's up? Sarge?"  
  
Weapons were quickly loaded, packed ammo retrieved and shoved into thigh  
  
pockets and packs shouldered. Except for Ranma; he set his 'Dex on a rock; then,  
  
slapping on night vision goggles he jumped into a tree.  
  
"I'm gonna recon. I can stay in the trees so it's me like it or don't! If I'm not  
  
back in 10 . . . Bug out. Pete, get in touch with Cen. OPs. We've got an incursion or  
  
I'm a monkey"  
  
As he was talking, he was also scanning the area for bogies.  
  
Sergeant Conroy snarled at Ranma to come back but he paid no attention.  
  
Jumping from branch to branch, careful to stay either close to the bole of the tree or in a  
  
leafy area of the branches, he reconnoitered.   
  
Moving in the direction of the smell, which had now become a stench, he  
  
scanned until he found what he had feared.  
  
Moon light plus the goggles gave him a good view of the nest of Feral Imps. He  
  
recognized them because they looked just like the creature from that card game; which  
  
was why they'd named them Imps.  
  
He'd have to go back and verify it but he realized they were just vermin. Some  
  
larger than others but they'd lucked out.  
  
His internal clock said eight minutes; he'd moved fast, zeroing in on the smell  
  
and keeping his search quick; so he had time to get back before the team bugged on  
  
him.  
  
Ranma dropped out of the tree to be literally snatched out of the air by Rio  
  
"Damnit!! You little shit! If you ever tell us to leave you behind again . . . I'll  
  
blister your butt."  
  
"We . . . are . . . Marines. We do not leave anyone behind. Do you  
  
understand me? And don't take off without orders again. Shit! We're a team . . . and  
  
you're not in command . . . Yet"  
  
Rio gave him a shake and a glare.  
  
Ranma was startled; not by Rio grabbing him, he'd seen that coming or Rio  
  
would be flat; but by the fury he could see on everyone's face. The moon was up by  
  
now and its light was revealing six very mad Marines.  
  
"OK . . . I screwed up. We don't have time for this now. Gimme that 'Dex. I  
  
think all we've got are vermin. You'll be happy. You can shoot it but there's a lot of  
  
them so I hope we've got enough ammo."  
  
Ranma opened the laptop and typed in his info. The computer quickly came up  
  
with answers that caused Ranma to turn cold all over; that tingly, cold feeling he got  
  
when he knew that he was well and truly in it deep.  
  
"Mother . . . Son of a . . . Shimatta!! K'so! Ch' . . . Ch' . . . Ch'!!"  
  
"Ranma! Damnit, stop sounding like a train and talk t' me. What we got? How  
  
fucked are we?" Conroy knew when Ranma started saying ch' it was bad.  
  
"We got a nest a' Feral Imps. I thought we lucked out but . . . wrong! The  
  
small ones ya can shoot, just vermin. But a nest has three kinds of Imp; vermin, critter,  
  
and a grizzly. I can handle the critters with a chi attack but the grizzly takes bruit force. I  
  
can cut it but . . . shit! . . . all I've got are some shirikins and this tooth pick." Ranma  
  
drew his SP-24 and showed it. "I wish I had something bigger."  
  
"Why can't we shoot them all? We got a full compliment of ammo! Plenty for  
  
all!" Conroy felt like all the other Grunts. If you shot it, it should die.  
  
"Magic? How the hell should I know? I just know what 'they' say. But if  
  
Steven says you can't kill it by shooting it I believe him. Waste ammo if ya want. But I  
  
still wish I had a bigger knife."  
  
Ranma was only pissed at himself; he'd had the feeling he should bring  
  
something larger than his knife but shrugged the feeling off. {I got t' start listening t' my  
  
gut}  
  
"Huh! If that knife's a problem; here." Ranma turned around to see Rio and  
  
Doug both offering him some of the best steel he'd seen lately "Try one of these. Trade  
  
ya. But I want it back when you're done with it"  
  
Ranma accepted Rio's offered knife. It was long enough to qualify as a short  
  
sword  
  
"Thanks. I'm gonna need it."  
  
Ranma hoped he didn't but his gut told him they were in for a long and nasty  
  
night  
  
Pete finished making his report to Cen. Ops and turned to the team. "Sarge,  
  
they're sending a chopper but it can't land close . . . three klicks out and we're home  
  
free. They said not to attack; we need backup and they're sending it."  
  
Ranma stood looking back at the trees."Guys! Incoming . . . and coming fast!"   
  
Ranma drew his Glock and started firing into the shadows surrounding them.  
  
Shadows that could only be Imps. They moved out heading for the extraction zone and  
  
Ranma hoping that he could keep his friends alive.  
  
As Ranma had taken up the 'eyes behind' he was the first one to make physical  
  
contact with an Imp. It jumped him from behind as he turned to check his footing.  
  
It clutched him around the body and as he threw it off it scratched him. It had  
  
gotten its forefoot into the gaping armhole of his vest. He'd forgotten to button up after  
  
Skeeter felt his scars. Ranma swore and stomped it into the ground. He kept going; he  
  
didn't have time to see how bad his wound was just yet.  
  
The team formed up around a circle and kept up a withering line of fire taking  
  
out vermin Imps as they came up from behind.   
  
"Don't let them get ahead of us; they'll cut off our retreat."  
  
Ranma snarled; he could see the critter Imps coming up fast. He was going to  
  
have to leave the team and he was going to catch hell later; Sarge wasn't going to like it  
  
any at all.   
  
Ranma lagged behind hoping that they wouldn't notice, but his head set  
  
crackled at him with the code to close up  
  
"Can't! Sarge; I need to use a chi attack t' get the Critters an' I don't want ya  
  
too close."  
  
"Naw, we'll just blow it away"   
  
All six men opened up on the first critter Imp; they emptied their AK-47's into  
  
it. It just swatted at itself like it had flies buzzing around its head. It snarled and snapped  
  
once; then it came after them.  
  
"Close up . . . or we wait. No one left behind, damnit."  
  
Ranma just told them not to look directly at the blast. He knew he only had a  
  
second to act or someone would die.  
  
"Mouko Takabisha!!" The ball of light that shot off Ranma's hand collided with  
  
the creatures head and its head disappeared along with most of its body.  
  
"Frag me! How often can you do that? Shit, what do ya need us for? Fuck!  
  
There's another one!"   
  
Conroy gathered his men and started a strategic retreat. Firing as they went  
  
they started backing out of the clearing they were in.   
  
"Take cover and hold off the vermin so I can concentrate. I can't do this  
  
forever. I run outa' ammo too . . . we need ya t' keep the vermin off so we can get the  
  
big stuff without bein' blind sided"   
  
Ranma prepared to blast another Imp but he backed off a little. If he could kill  
  
the critter with less power, he'd have more 'shots'; he knew that even he would run out  
  
of chi eventually and then there was the little matter of blood loss. He was bleeding  
  
steadily from his shoulder.  
  
"Mouko Takabisha." Two down and plenty more coming; the vermin were still  
  
coming too. Then Ranma heard the cry he'd hoped not to hear  
  
"MAN DOWN!" Skeeter was bent over Doug, feeling his leg.  
  
"I just tripped over my own big feet; I'll be fine in a . . . Shit . . . that hurt!"  
  
Doug clenched his teeth; he knew his leg was probably broken, but he'd hoped  
  
he was wrong. He wasn't.   
  
Rio reached over and picked him up in a shoulder carry; Doug reached down  
  
and got hold of Rio's belt; Rio wrapped his left arm around Doug's thigh and crossed  
  
his arm over his chest to grip a strap on his body armor. That way he had his right hand  
  
free so he could still use his Glock.  
  
Ranma saw that Rio was carrying Doug; so he turned back to take care of the  
  
critter Imps. He used the least amount of chi he needed to get the job done; he didn't  
  
have time or strength to spare for the flashy spatters of energy that had always  
  
accompanied his blasts before. While they had value with a human opponent, they  
  
didn't impress an Imp.  
  
Ranma pressed his hand to his shoulder surveying the clearing; he'd blasted the  
  
critters as they entered it, there wasn't much left of them.   
  
He gritted his teeth and moved out, heading for the rest of the team. As he  
  
moved out, he worried; how much ammo did the guys have left?  
  
He had no idea how many more vermin Imps there were out there; if they ran  
  
into too many more they could be dry before it was over.  
  
Hearing a chopper, he walked into the clearing. The chopper hovered over him  
  
the crackling in his earpiece telling him that the iron ore in the mountains was doing its  
  
best to cut him off from the rest of his team. The only thing making the communication  
  
equipment work at this distance was the repeater in the chopper and it was too low for  
  
that to work now.  
  
Ranma squatted and then jumped. He landed on the slick lip of the doorway  
  
but the man standing just inside grabbed him before he slipped backwards. The only  
  
thing that kept them both from falling out the door was the harness the soldier was  
  
wearing.  
  
Ranma tore the sleeve off his shirt, "Patch me up quick. I need all the ammo  
  
you can spare. We're running dry quick. You headed for the pick up? Have ya got  
  
FLEER?"  
  
At a nod he looked around, a medic tried to get him to lie down so he could be  
  
bandaged. He pushed the medic away, just stuffing the bandage into the armhole of his  
  
vest and tightening the front up till the bandage was pressed against his wound "No time  
  
now! I'll do 'till later."   
  
He pushed the operator away from the FLEER screen and looked for bogies  
  
himself; there were no more critters but plenty of vermin still and his stomach fell as he  
  
saw the largest signature yet. It had to be a full-grown Imp; a grizzly.  
  
"Shimatta! K'so! Konoyarou!"  
  
The medic grabbed Ranma and almost got his head jerked off for his trouble.  
  
Ranma only stopped himself because he recognized the uniform in time.  
  
"Shiri-nuke-me! I mean hands off ya fuckin' jerk. Ya wanna die. Don't touch  
  
me! Get me that ammo; I gotta get back down there."  
  
"How ya gonna get down there? We got no rappeling gear. It's all been  
  
deployed. You're wounded . . . still bleedin'. Come on man!"  
  
Ranma just grabbed the pack of ammo the old Gunnie had packed for him.  
  
With a nod to the man Ranma jumped out the door and dropped the three hundred odd  
  
feet to the ground and, sticking the landing, took off after his fellows.   
  
"Here! Ammo! Load up! We got more vermin comin'" Ranma handed out  
  
ammo and checked to see that everyone was still in one piece. He was, so far; the only  
  
one bleeding and he intended to keep it that way. "How's Doug?"  
  
"Shit! I saw it with my own eyes! Ya can't shoot the big one's. Is this one of  
  
those times when we just back ya up and hope for the best?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. All ya gotta do is keep the vermin from gangin' up on me.  
  
I'm gonna be wasted after I get Momma. We can't dodge her or out run her an' I gotta  
  
get her fast. I can't keep this up too much longer, I'm losin' too much blood, that  
  
Medic in the chopper didn't do me a damn bit a' good."  
  
Ranma dodged Skeeter as he reached out for a look. He just pressed his fist  
  
against his shoulder again. He had drawn the big knife and was holding it in that hand.  
  
He was totally unaware of how much he resembled an old roman gladiator saluting the  
  
emperor before going into the arena and wouldn't have cared if he did. But his fellows  
  
did and readied themselves to see that he didn't make the ultimate sacrifice.  
  
Momma broke up the moment in a nasty way, she roared and crashed through  
  
the brush after the team. At Ranmas hasty instructions they broke like a covey of quail;  
  
leaving her with too many decisions to make; this resulted in her doing what stupid  
  
beasts do best; go in a straight line.  
  
Ranma ran in front of her so that she would follow him to a spot he had picked  
  
from the chopper. He wanted enough clear space to work but not enough to give her a  
  
chance to get a run at him. Trapping her against a tree line was his best chance of  
  
getting in his licks before she flattened him.  
  
"Shoot her! Shoot her! I need her turned around!"   
  
Ranma waited until the aggravation of being shot caused her to turn away from  
  
the trees. First he unloaded a Mouko Takabisha on it just in case; but Steven was right,  
  
no chi attack would work. So he jumped in the air and landed a kick to the head that  
  
would have shattered an elephant's skull; the Imp just shook her head and snarled. She  
  
swatted him out of the air like a fly. Ranma rolled and came back to his feet; bouncing  
  
on the balls of his feet as he studied the Imp.   
  
He launched himself at her and used the knife. He cut her across the upper  
  
chest; he'd been aiming at her neck but she had leaped at him at the same time putting  
  
his aim to low.  
  
His feral snarl rivaled the Imp's; his return cut stuck the knife through the Imp's  
  
breast bone and it caught there.   
  
"Fuck! All right then. Guys . . . retreat . . . now! Ya gotta get Doug t' the pick  
  
up. We can argue later! I got one more attack and I don't want ya around when I use  
  
it." Cursing and swearing they started to retreat.  
  
"Neko-ken!!" Ranma turned into a snarling ball of fury; he rushed the Imp and  
  
proceeded to claw it into bloody shreds. He scattered them everywhere.  
  
Dropping to all fours on the ground he sniffed at the scraps and snorted, the  
  
peculiar smell of the Imps 'blood' disgusted him. He was covered with the obnoxious  
  
slimy fluid.   
  
Then he took off after his retreating team mates loping like a cat. As he ran he  
  
pulled in the cat and staggered slightly as his body accommodated to running on two  
  
feet instead of four.   
  
He caught up and checked everyone over. They were all panting and swearing  
  
but they were also chugging along at a good trot. Ranma decided most of the panting  
  
was just hyperventilation instead of the shortness of breath caused by exhaustion.  
  
"Rio, how ya doin'? Need relief? I'll spell ya a bit." Ranma trotted by Rio  
  
holding his shoulder, it was stinging even more as the Imp blood got into it.  
  
"Naw, I got 'im. How ya doin' yourself? Ya look bad, make it ok?"  
  
Rio didn't like Ranma's look at all; he was pale and sweating, he'd said he was  
  
bleeding earlier, but now Rio couldn't tell anything because of the slime covering  
  
Ranma.   
  
Rio shouted, "Hey, Sarg! Ranma don't look so good; we need t' stop a minute  
  
and check 'im out."  
  
"NO! No time! I'll keep a while longer. We get t' extraction an' I'm down but  
  
not till then. Keep goin', ya baka." Ranma fended Skeeter off again "Shit! I gotta go  
  
back!"  
  
Rio blocked Ranma with his body and Doug groaned; his leg was really hurting  
  
and he was beginning to see stars as the blood ran into his head. He'd been across  
  
Rio's back for most of the encounter.  
  
"Why the hell ya gotta go back? What for?"  
  
"I left your knife in Momma. I promised t' give it back."  
  
"Fuck the knife! I'll make another! Get your butt goin'. I'm gettn' tired a' usin'  
  
Doug as a necklace."  
  
Ranma ran, drawing the others after him. He took point because he was the  
  
only one who had a chance against the Imps. Everyone else was out of ammo again.   
  
"Damnit, you guys just shoot anything. I told ya ya couldn't kill the big ones. I  
  
got t' do that. Now we're open t' attack from vermin and I don't think I'm up t' killing  
  
a whole pack a' cockroaches."  
  
They burst into the clearing and saw heaven in the form of an HH-3E; a Jolly  
  
Green Giant. 72 feet long, 18 feet high with two beautiful 7.26mm machine guns that  
  
started up the minute the gunners saw the vermin behind them. Luckily, not very close  
  
behind.  
  
They clambered in the open door with the flight engineer and para-rescue  
  
specialist helping; the engineer told the pilot to take off and he went strait up, then  
  
slanted the chopper slightly as he swung around to head back to the Compound.  
  
Skeeter scrambled over feet to get to Ranma. He was leaning back against the  
  
seat he was sitting in holding his shoulder. He was covered with some kind of slime and  
  
his side was soaked with blood to the hip.   
  
Skeeter yelled at the para-rescue who took one look and helped Skeeter carry  
  
Ranma into the back where they started to work on him.   
  
First they pulled off his vest and cut his shirt and undershirt away, swearing as  
  
the slimy Imp blood made their hands slip.  
  
He had three fairly deep gashes in his chest. The Imp had reached into the  
  
armhole of Ranma's vest and dug his claws in the pectoral muscle then dragged them  
  
toward the hollow of his shoulder gouging cuts which oozed blood freely. Ranma had  
  
been bleeding for most of the encounter.  
  
"Damnit! Look at all this blood. He's about bled out. Get an IV started! We  
  
got no blood but we got ringers and plasma . . . stick him in both arms and get it going.  
  
I got left."  
  
The para and Skeeter worked like mad men. Ranma had lost so much blood  
  
that his heart was in danger of stopping because there wasn't enough blood volume to  
  
pump. But Ranma wasn't going out easy, or at all.  
  
They got IV's in both arms and stripped off the old bloody bandages. When  
  
they applied the new bandage they doubled Bloodstopper Quickclot's and wrapped  
  
them with elastic bandaging to put more pressure on the wound.  
  
"Ranma! Hey! Saotome! Ya little shit; ya ain't goin'out! Not on my watch.  
  
Wake up! Say somthin'." Skeeter was getting worried; Ranma should have at least  
  
opened his eyes by now.  
  
"Just five more minutes!" Ranma sat half way up and kissed Skeeter on the  
  
cheek.   
  
"Aggg! Shit! Ya little perv! If ya ever scare me like that again . . . "  
  
"Yeah, I know; ya'll beat my butt. Damnit, I'm dizzy as hell. What's going on?  
  
Why do I have needles in both arms . . . ? " Ranma sagged against Skeeter. "I think I  
  
need t' lie back down."   
  
Skeeter had already eased Ranma back down. "You are down. Dumb ass! Pull  
  
another stunt like that and I'll have Rio sit on ya!"  
  
"Rio! Doug! Where is everyone? I need t' see them. Let me up! Damnit,  
  
Skeeter! I'm not kiddin'. I can't rest until I see them all."   
  
Ranma started to get up again but Rio did sit on him, sort of. He held him down  
  
by planting his hand in the middle of Ranma's chest. Ranma knew he was in bad shape  
  
when it worked.   
  
"Just let me see everyone. Please! I promise I'll be good."  
  
Conroy had everyone go back and let Ranma see them; as a non-com he  
  
understood how Ranma felt. Everybody else had seen the others but Ranma had been  
  
dragged to the back before he'd had a chance to count noses and he wasn't going to  
  
rest until he had. After seeing the team was all there Ranma passed out again and  
  
stayed that way.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Authors Notes  
  
Do NOT take shields off Power Take Off gears or shafts; this scenario is very real and  
  
very deadly. I know of two people who have been very badly hurt; thankfully not killed,  
  
by doing this.  
  
Ranma's nightmare made the chapter too long and didn't really fit so if you're interested  
  
I'm posting it as a one shot called "Nightmare". It's really dark and weird so if you  
  
aren't into that just ignore it.  
  
I know the 'thin blue line' is the police but I got a poetic license; I paid a whole quarter  
  
for it an' I'm gonna use it. 


	22. chapter 23

Disclaimer: you've read it 22 times already.  
  
Chapter 23   
  
When Ranma woke up he wondered vaguely why he wasn't in his room then he remembered.   
  
Looking around he saw Sunny at the foot of the bed. She had her head resting on her arms on the  
  
mattress. He tried to put his hand on his chest but a tug on his wrist stopped him. He was restrained,  
  
but the restraints were standard soft canvas straps.  
  
"Huh? What's this? Sunny, baby; wake up!" Ranma decided he'd better find out what was up  
  
before he threw a fit. "Sunny, wakie, wakie, Ran-chan here. Come on baby "  
  
Sunny woke up slowly, she screeched and yawned. Ranma had patience with her; he hated  
  
being yanked into wakefulness so he let her get it together before demanding  
  
"Why am I tied down what did I do? Who did I hurt? Talk quick or . . . "  
  
"Oh damnit, Ranma you baka." Ranma flinched, "Why do you do that what's the matter with  
  
you we had to restrain you just to keep you from pulling your IV"s out rolling over. Every time I call  
  
you a baka you flinch like I'm gonna hit you. what's the matter? Damn that B..witch. she made you that  
  
way. Never mind . . . you didn't hurt anyone you're the only one who got hurt. The whole team is  
  
outside wanting to see you you've been out for a day and night and part of another day that deamon  
  
blood held your healing up. The team is all rested they just got here a few minutes ago so I'll let the  
  
whole pack in.."  
  
Sunny went to the door and called the men in. Skeeter went to take Ranma's pulse with one  
  
hand while fishing in a thigh pocket for his stethoscope. Everyone else just gathered at the bed side and  
  
looked.  
  
Ranma, resenting being flat on his back, started to get up. Skeeter pushed at him, "Lay down.  
  
No, get up so I can listen to your chest, here . . . What the hell? Damnit, they've got him restrained.   
  
He didn't do nothin' to deserve that! Get him outa' . . . "  
  
Sunny just reached for the strap, "I'll get it"  
  
"Naw, Sunny, I got it." Ranma snapped the restraints without even straining, he just sat up and  
  
reached over for Rio's hand. "Man I'm sorry about your knife. And it was a real nice one too. But  
  
Momma's still got it. I couldn't get it out a' her chest. stuck it in the breast bone and I couldn't pull it  
  
loose."  
  
"Never mind the knife. We're glad t' see you're back t' full health. Broke those straps like  
  
thread . . . I'm glad you're on our side."  
  
Sunny mean while was fussing at Ranma. "Ranma don't pull out those IV"s you still need the  
  
fluids. You're dehydrated and should have all that bag and another one as well will you stay down and  
  
be good damnit We had to wait until you were almost conscious to start IV"s you thrash around too  
  
much."  
  
"Aw Sunny I'm fine, just pull the needles out and let me up. I'm thirsty. I need a drink and I  
  
want t' talk t' the team. I have t' go t' debriefin' and all that."  
  
Conroy took over, using his command voice he put Ranma flat. "Saotome lay down! If you rip  
  
those needles out they'll just have to go in somewhere you won't like as well. Here, drink this and  
  
debriefing isn't till tomorrow. Be careful. You don't want to undo all Miss Sunny's good work. I don't  
  
believe what she can do. Man, she healed ya in a second and healed Doug too."   
  
Ranma plopped back on the bed without arguing. He was waiting for Sargent Conroy the  
  
Pissed to show up, and he did, with a vengeance  
  
"Now I have a few choice things to say to you Mister. If you ever leave your team again  
  
without express permission, I'll have you up on Courts Martial, stripped of rank and hung out to dry.  
  
Damnit! You don't just walk into the jaws of something like Momma without backup! Crazy, damn kid,  
  
too young to use your brain and too brave to run. Stupid, stupid brat." Conroy ran down. The others  
  
were all looking grim and pissed.  
  
Ranma, flat on his back, had spent the time picking the straps off his wrists without pulling out  
  
an IV. Now he just sat up and hung his head.   
  
"I never had anybody t' depend on before. I just got the people here, like you guys and Kuno  
  
an' Ryouga, but he's a bit iffy, he gets lost too much . . . oh . . . and Danny an' Shuba an' Leela an'  
  
Sunny but that's more friends than I had all together in my whole life before. So I guess I was afraid t'  
  
lose any a' you fools, an' ya can't Court Martial me, I'm not military. I"m a George. Besides I think ya  
  
have t' be 18 t' sign up with you crazies" Ranma peeked out from under his bangs blinking at his  
  
teammates like an owl.  
  
"Damnit don't do that! It makes you look like you're ten. Then I don't have the heart t' be mad  
  
at ya anymore. Stupid! Just promise you'll be more careful. Seeing ya bleedin' and pale like that just  
  
about killed us all. Promise, damnit, or I'll . . . "  
  
Ranma grinned at Conroy "Turn Rio loose on me. I don't understand this obsession with  
  
blistering my butt danmit! Then ya raise hell when someone really does it."  
  
Rio just grinned back at Ranma. "No? When we say it, it's just hot air but I'll turn Sunny loose  
  
on you an' she'll nag ya in t' next week."  
  
Sunny had been watching Ranma closely. "You need to go soon. Ranma has recovered almost  
  
completely but it will be another day before he has replaced all his red blood cells so he's going to tire  
  
quickly until then. And he's going to pull out that IV if he doesn't quit flapping his arms around."  
  
Ranma extended his right arm to Sunny, "Take this one out at least. I hate needles! Come on  
  
Sunny . . . Pleeeeease! I'll be so good you won't believe it . . . Sunny . . . come on. I'll lay right back  
  
down . . . Seee . . . I'm down." Ranma wheedled like a four-year-old. He thought he could tease her  
  
out of keeping him in bed.  
  
But Sunny had other ideas. "I'm not taking out either IV, if you want to get better quickly you  
  
have to get re hydrated. You need to drink all this." Sunny handed Ranma a bottle of gatoraid, "And  
  
you need all the fluid in both bags plus another one. If you keep the IV's in, you can get up tomorrow,  
  
if not you'll stay there until next day. And if you don't mind me I won't speak to you for a week. Do  
  
you understand me, Saotome Ranma?"  
  
"Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am! I'll be good . . . Sunny you wouldn't really not talk to me for a whole  
  
week not even one word? Wouldja?" Ranma replied to Sunny as if she was a drill Sargent and he a  
  
new recruit.  
  
Sunny gave Ranma her 'Healer and you better mind' look and nodded firmly. "Oh yea I would.  
  
It would hurt me more than it hurt you but when I say mind me, I mean Mind! And I want you pack of  
  
mad men out of here. You've seen he's going to be fine so get out and let him rest. Ranma you will  
  
rest!" Sunny shooed Ranma's team out.  
  
Only to have everyone else show up just twenty minutes later.   
  
"Hey! Get me outta here. Sunny has me stuck full a' needles and all I wanna do is go back t'  
  
the dorm." Ranma was tired of being good, he hated the smell of hospitals and the bed had lumps  
  
where he needed dips.  
  
Kuno looked at Shuba. Everyone looked everywhere but at Ranma. Finally Leela spoke up,  
  
"Ran-chan, it's more than our sanity is worth. She's been on a real rampage since you came in. I never  
  
saw so much blood in my life and besides you need to be here incase something happens."  
  
"What could possibly happen, except that I'm gonna go crazy here. It stinks and this bed's not  
  
mine. All I wanna do is lay down in my own bed. Is that askin' too much?" So the teens decided to  
  
sneak Ranma out, they failed  
  
"Stop right there! Just exactly where do you think you're going? Ranma! I'm going to chain you  
  
to that bed. You can't go any where and if you think I'm going to let you go running off looking for . . ."  
  
Sunny clamped her hand over her mouth but the damage was done.  
  
Suddenly Ranma knew what had been bothering him. In the distraction of everything going on  
  
he'd forgotten to count noses.   
  
"Fuck! Where the hell is Ryouga? Please don't tell me he's . . . " Ranma clutched his chest; all  
  
of a sudden he felt weak.  
  
"No! He's ok as far as we can tell. He's . . . well . . . He's lost! I didn't want you to know  
  
yet. That's why I didn't want you to go back to your room. I... you can't go running off to find him.  
  
You really do need to recover more and anyway what can you do that Cen. Ops can't do better."  
  
Ranma just leaned against the wall trying to gather the strength to be mad, or something.  
  
Ryouga had gotten himself lost and he couldn't do anything to help.  
  
{I'm too young for this shit!}  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ryouga swore. He couldn't believe he'd lost both his phone and GPS; one or the other, yes,  
  
but both? The odds were high but he'd foolishly kept them both in the same pocket. When he realized  
  
he was lost he'd reached for his GPS and found a hole in his pocket, he'd caught his pants on  
  
something and ripped them.  
  
So here he was sitting in the middle of nowhere with nothing. An unpleasant situation he was  
  
not unused to but one he'd hopped to avoid forever.  
  
He'd been doing so well. He hadn't been lost since arriving at the Compound. Steven had set  
  
things up with Cen Ops. There was one operator who did nothing but see that he got where he wanted  
  
to go.  
  
All he had to do was call Cen Ops; they would use the tracer in his phone to locate him and  
  
then down load a map that would get him where he wanted to go. He was bad with regular maps but  
  
these were locator maps with a red arrow, all he had to do was keep the arrow pointed straight ahead;  
  
it even led him around obstacles.  
  
He could feel the old helpless rage building. He gave in to it and, screaming until he literally  
  
foamed at the mouth, he destroyed every thing around. When he finished ripping every tree, bush, and  
  
rock out of the ground, he broke the trees into splinters.  
  
Finally he dropped into a sitting position; wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and fell  
  
asleep.  
  
When he awoke it was dawn so he started walking straight ahead, in the direction of central  
  
China.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
In order to try to forget his worry over Ryouga Ranma made a mistake. He allowed his team  
  
mates to talk him into going out on the town. They invited Shuba, Kuno, and Danny but they refused on  
  
the grounds that they were going out with their own teams.  
  
"Hey we're not breaking up!" Ranma examined the three faces around him.  
  
"Most assuredly not, we are still the George team but it bodes well that we are invited out with  
  
the Grunts and amenable relations should be cemented by drinking with them."   
  
"Besides what Kuno isn't saying is, we can drink with them but without them we're Shirley all  
  
the way." Danny smirked knowingly and Shuba nodded grinning. "Besides even Leela's Amazons are  
  
going out. I just hope the bunch of us don't all wind up at the same place. I don't think it would  
  
survive."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma was throughly drunk and silly. He'd been careful to pick something that was light on  
  
alcohol he'd thought. But Long Island Ice Tea has no tea in it and more alcohol than it tastes like.  
  
By the time anyone realized what he was doing, he was hammered. The reason no one noticed  
  
how much he was drinking was that they were all too busy watching the strippers.  
  
Ranma decided to take exception to the dancers.   
  
"They got du . . . the coordination of a two-year-old not one of 'em can chew gum and walk  
  
at t' same time not t' mention fact 'at they're either too thin or they're flabby and some a' those  
  
costumes are simply shtupit"   
  
Ranma blinked at the current girl. He was right she looked so thin she was practically  
  
emaciated and she wasn't used to the high platform soles and six inch heels of the boots she was  
  
wearing so she kept stumbling. The tassels glued over the salient parts of her breasts flopping oddly as  
  
she did so.  
  
"That one looks like . . . I donowhat she shu . . . a" Ranma ran down and poked Skeeter  
  
"Huh? Oh. Yeah she dosh . . . does look like a crack 'ho. n' a clumshy un at'tat. Say . . . Bet  
  
Ranko could out do her." Skeeter was just running off at the head, like any drunk would, but Ranma  
  
took his remarks as a challenge and challenged Ranma never backs down.  
  
Ranma became Ranko; stripped off his jacket and shoes before anyone knew what he was  
  
about and jumped on the stage. The immediate effect of this was to have every man in the bar start  
  
drooling. Ranko was so far above the usual quality of girl on that stage that they might have come from  
  
different planets  
  
Most of the girls here were used up, tired and bored; they did their jobs but couldn't have  
  
cared less if anyone even looked. Ranko was fresh faced, young and enthusiastic. Very enthusiastic.  
  
She did a slow grind and a sharp bump, then sauntered to the edge of the stage swinging her hips in  
  
time to the music. By the time the rest of the team realized who the dancer was she had already done a  
  
drop and crawl followed by a slow push up that stuck her breasts almost into the face of a startled  
  
Doug.  
  
"Damnit Get him . . . I mean her . . . Shit!.. off the stage, now." Conroy wasn't as drunk as  
  
Skeeter or Doug and Dave, Pete, and Rio were very nearly sober. Conroy's 'Sargent' took over.  
  
"Rio! You muscle Skeeter and Doug. Dave, Pete with me! We got t' get that kid off the stage, pronto.  
  
Fuck! Steven's gonna kill all of us then put us on report for life."  
  
Rio grabbed Skeeter and Doug and headed for the back exit. They were sobering up quickly  
  
and helped Rio block the bouncers who tried to interfere with Conroy, Dave, and Pete's rush on the  
  
stage.  
  
By the time they got there Ranko had begun unbuttoning his shirt while doing a spread legged  
  
kneeling hump right on the edge of the stage. Dave had his jacket off and wrapping it around Ranko  
  
and snatching her up, dumped her over Pete's shoulder head down.  
  
"Hey leme go. 'M no' done. Gotta finish challenge"  
  
"Shut up Ranma! You're gettn' outta here now before someone sees you. Damnit, how did you  
  
get this drunk I should have been watching you better."  
  
Ranko, head down over Pete's shoulder, managed to change into Ranma and start to struggle.  
  
"Damnit, I'm not drunk. I'm still standin' ain't I?"  
  
"No, you're not! You're over my shoulder, stupid kid."  
  
Everyone headed for the rear exit. The bouncers, recognizing them as Grunts, gave up any  
  
hope of stopping them.  
  
In the alley behind the bar they formed up around Pete and Ranma. After stuffing a still  
  
protesting Ranma into the van, a disgusted bunch of now semi-drunk marines headed back to base.  
  
"Damnit! We're in real trouble. What possessed me to take my eyes off that boy for that long?  
  
What the hell was he drinking?" at someone's mumbled response he gagged, "Long Island Ice Tea?  
  
Son-of-a-bitch, what the hell were you idiots thinking? What was I thinking to let him drink that stuff?  
  
How many did he have?"  
  
Skeeter who had been counting the cups, more or less for future reference, mumbled an  
  
answer. Conroy managed to hear him even though Skeeter tried to keep his answer low enough that he  
  
couldn't.  
  
"Six doubles. Sorry Boss, he's really tanked."  
  
"Six . . . You stupid . . . he's not used to drinking . . . Better make him puke he's liable to get  
  
Alcohol poisoning."  
  
So they pulled over and just in time. They didn't need to make anyone empty their stomachs  
  
Ranma and Skeeter both lost it. Skeeter because he needed to and Ranma because he smelled  
  
Skeeter.  
  
That settled Ranma. He finally quit complaining and sat down in his seat. After a few minutes he  
  
fell asleep/passed out. The rest of the men spent a very subdued ride back trying to figure out what they  
  
were going to tell Steven.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Did you see that? That boy turned into a girl. I know someone who's been offering good  
  
money for information about magical objects. Real good.  
  
Yeah? If Tendo Nabiki dosn't know about that guy, we can clean up. I know who you're  
  
talking about. She pays real good. If you can get the money out of her without being turned into  
  
something nasty, I don't like doing business with a witch.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma woke with the definite impression that all was not right with his world. The light  
  
streaming in his window was far too bright, he had a nasty taste in his mouth and suddenly his head and  
  
stomach were telling him: Alcohol bad! Ranma stupid!  
  
"Aaaagggghhh! Ooo, too loud . . . Oow! . . . my head. My god I'm dyin'!" Ranma held his  
  
head then he rolled over pulling his pillow over his head to block out the too bright light of early dawn.  
  
He fell back to sleep but not for long.  
  
"RANMA!! WAKIE!!" Ranma jumped so hard that he rose a few inches off the bed. Sunny at  
  
this hour; his hung over head realized, was too shrill and way too loud. {Alcohol bad!} "Steven wants  
  
to see you right away. Get up! Take a shower! Get going!" Sunny slammed the door and snickered.  
  
{That'll teach him.}  
  
A few minutes later Kuno stuck his head in the door. "Saotome, you'd best get going, Steven is  
  
in a real state. While we managed to have a good time without getting inebriated or even in a fight.  
  
Wonder of wonders . . . you've managed to create a disaster. Your whole team is on report."  
  
Ranma sat up holding his pounding head {Ranma no baka} "Where's Sunny? Can she . . . "  
  
Ranma just sighed at Kuno's head shake he'd hoped against hope she would do something for him. "I  
  
thought not."  
  
Ranma looked around, his room was fairly orderly. Last night's clothes were scattered over the  
  
floor and one drawer was still half way out of the dresser. He didn't see what he wanted.  
  
"Kuno-kun, find my knife."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I'm gonna cut my throat."  
  
"What?! I thought you were over that suicide shit! I'm calling Steven!"  
  
"Just gimme my knife!"  
  
"No! Why do you want to kill yourself? It isn't that bad!"  
  
"Yeah, it is!"   
  
"So . . . You wan t to kill yourself because . . . ?"  
  
"I don't I tell ya! But my head hurts so bad it's either cut it off or die."  
  
"Ranma, you are a total moron. Buffoon! Get up, get dressed and go see Steven . . . And I'd  
  
hurry if I were you." Kuno left before Ranma saw him laughing.  
  
Ranma scrambled through a shower and into some clothes, he just grabbed whatever he could  
  
so he wound up in BDUs and boots; which seemed proper after he got to Steven's office. {Damnit, I  
  
wish my head would just explode and be done with it}  
  
"Well Saotome, I'm glad to see that you are still in the land of the living. I was beginning to  
  
wonder if you had died on us. You've kept these men waiting for more than thirty minutes so I hope  
  
you're happy."  
  
"Sir! No Sir! I'm not happy. Sir!" Ranma took a page from Rio's book when you know you've  
  
fucked up, brace and take it on the chin. He snapped to and hoped Steven didn't hear his moan.  
  
Steven did.  
  
"Had a little too much to drink did you?" Steven turned to the other men. "I hope you guys are  
  
in the mood to serve some time. Let's see what we have. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor,  
  
procuring alcohol for a minor, endangering the safety and welfare of a minor and drunk and disorderly,  
  
destruction of private property, need I say more? You men are in a world of hurt." Steven had pitched  
  
his voice for maximum effect and everyone was wincing and trying to stay at attention while Skeeter  
  
and Doug were turning paler by the second. Sargent Conroy was wondering how much of Steven's  
  
speech was real threat and how much just dressing down. They were in very real danger of big trouble  
  
which could include time in a stockade the charges were not good to say the least.  
  
"Time in a stockade should teach you to take better care of Ranma and his crew. You forget  
  
that they are all minors and everyone but Kuno not yet 17. You are the only combined team that  
  
managed to bring home a drunk minor. Ranma what the hell?"  
  
Ranma had jumped over Steven's desk, grabbed the cane from its place and slammed it down  
  
on the desk.  
  
"Do what you want to me, but leave my team mates alone. They didn't force me. I drank it all  
  
on my own. You can beat me; lock me up; I don't care but leave them alone. Ya hear me? .... I'm  
  
responsible for myself. Ow! My head! Just shoot me now and put me outta my misery. Shit!" Ranma  
  
scrambled for the men's room, his rolling stomach finally unable to keep up with hangover and upset.  
  
After dry heaving for a few minutes Ranma wiped his mouth and started to stand up. He was  
  
surprised to find Steven offering him a hand. He followed Steven back to his office and found six very  
  
ashamed looking Marines standing At Ease; a rather rigid At Ease.  
  
"Stand down." At Steven's command they all relaxed and surrounded Ranma.  
  
"Damnit, kid. I never saw anyone who would offer so much t a bunch a' loose cannons like us.  
  
What did we ever do to deserve it?" Rio took over talking for once. Conroy couldn't find his voice.  
  
"You're my friends. Wouldn't you do the same for me?" Ranma turned to Steven. "Does this  
  
mean you're not gonna send them to jail?"  
  
"No, I'm not going to send them to jail. That was just notification of what could happen if I  
  
wasn't the nice guy I am. You men get out of here. You're all on report and confined to quarters for the  
  
week. Get out. Oh! I'm not going to hit Ranma. That doesn't mean he's not going to be punished"  
  
Ranma groaned, Steven had some very imaginative punishments. He didn't think his head could  
  
take much more it was pounding so hard he still felt slightly sick; as his friends filed out they all patted  
  
his shoulder or whispered words of encouragement.  
  
"How's your head, Ranma? Still hurt?" Ranma nodded then clenched his teeth. Pressing the  
  
heels of his hands to his pounding temples, he just stood for a minute trying to get his head to stay on.   
  
"Steven, I"m really sorry. I know better than to get drunk. Pop drank, not a lot, but enough that  
  
I've had booze before. Not American whisky and stuff. I've been drunk before too, so I know better.  
  
Really I do. Please don't punish the guys. I ... they didn't make me drink. Not even by teasing me into  
  
it. I just didn't know that Ice Tea was so powerful. It didn't taste strong. I know I'm gonna get it an  
  
I'm man enough t' handle it but they shouldn't be punished for my mistakes."  
  
Ranma bent over the desk hoping that he didn't disgrace himself by getting sick again. His head  
  
was still pounding and he was slightly nauseous. He wished Sunny had helped him out but he knew she  
  
was punishing him in her own subtle way.  
  
"Come on, Steven, let's get this over with. I'm hung over like a bitch and I'd like t' get some  
  
juice and go hide somewhere till my head quits feeling like it's gonna pop."  
  
Steven just wondered how he'd been blessed with anyone like Ranma. He was proud to a fault  
  
and couldn't pass a challenge to save his life but he was the kind of person who admitted his mistakes  
  
and was proud enough to correct them, no matter what the cost. How anyone who had spent more  
  
than an hour with him could call him arrogant and stupid wasn't paying attention.  
  
"Ranma I think getting drunk is it's own punishment. How's your head again?" Steven smacked  
  
Ranma's butt with the flat of his hand, one gentile smack. "Get out! Get your juice and the next time  
  
you're in here for the same thing. You'll be confined to your room for a week. Understand?'  
  
Ranma straightened up, "Yes sir! Thanks Steven It won't happen again. And thanks for taking  
  
it easy on the guys." He headed out the door and back to the dorm. He hoped Sunny wasn't mad at  
  
him anymore. He didn't need to be on the receiving end of one of her long, shrill scolds but she met  
  
him at his room.  
  
"Sunny, I love ya but if you're gonna scold me, please wait till later. My head's killin' me an' I  
  
feel sick. I'd like t' get some juice or somethin' to settle my stomach and some aspirin wouldn't hurt."  
  
Sunny looked like she was going to say something but then she shrugged. "Ok Ran-chan, I wish  
  
I knew what you feel like but I don't want to get plastered to find out. Let me touch you, I'll fix you up  
  
this once but only once."  
  
"I don't wish you could feel like this. I feel like dyin' would be a relief." Ranma led Sunny into  
  
his room where he eased himself down on the bed and stretched out on his back.  
  
Sunny touched Ranma's head and decided to try an Empathetic technique she'd just learned.  
  
She collapsed across Ranma's chest with a small whimper.  
  
Ranma freaked, "Sunny! Sunny, sweetie. What the hell. Kuno! Leela! Someone help! Damnit,  
  
what's wrong?" Ranma cradled Sunny in his arms, completely forgetting his own pain.  
  
"Ooohhh! My head, my stomach. I"m gonna hurl. Let me . . . " Sunny sat up and pushed  
  
Ranma away.  
  
Kuno and Danny rushed in just then. "What'd you do to her?" "Let her go!"  
  
Both boys jumped to the wrong conclusions and got the dirtiest look Sunny was capable of and  
  
a hurt look from Ranma  
  
"I didn't do anything to her. Akane may have called me hentai but I'm not . . . I . . . "  
  
"Shut up Ranma! I tried a new technique and it hurt . . . Ranma how could you sit there so  
  
calmly when you were in so much pain?"  
  
"I'm used to it. I hurt pretty much of my child hood. What do you think I felt like after training  
  
with Pop? Especially when I was small." Ranma rubbed the back of his head. His hangover had faded  
  
when Sunny touched him "What'd you do?"  
  
"I took your pain. I used the Empaths' Exchange technique. I don't think I'm going to use that  
  
one much." Sunny held her head, which was splitting.  
  
Kuno just pushed Danny out the door whispering, "I've got them, go back to Leela. Shuba's  
  
not back from the search team yet."  
  
Ranma heard Kuno whispering, he just got up and went into his bathroom, when he came out  
  
he gave Sunny some aspirin and a glass of water. "Here take this and never do that again.. I'll handle  
  
my own pain. You do enough just healing me, lay down for a while."  
  
As Ranma pushed Kuno out the door, he pinned him with a tell all look; "What's wrong with  
  
Leela?"  
  
Kuno sighed; Ranma wasn't good at feelings, especially girls' emotions.  
  
"She's upset because Ryouga is lost. You could go talk to her; maybe you can convince her  
  
he's not going to die on us."  
  
Ranma heard Leela crying before he got half way to her room. She sounded half way  
  
hysterical, she even had hiccups.   
  
"Leela, honey, don't cry. He'll come back, really he will. Ranma says he gets lost all the time."  
  
Danny was sitting on his sisters' bed patting her shoulder while she cried into her pillow  
  
"Ranma says . . . " Leela sobbed, "What does he know?"  
  
"I know that Ryu will show up fairly soon . . . Six months is the longest he ever stayed gone but  
  
it averages out at two to three weeks. He knows more about survival than anyone else I know. From  
  
the Sahara to Antarctica he'll be fine. Don't cry anymore Leela. If he finds out I let you make yourself  
  
sick he'll pound me t' bloody paste. Come on. If you cry anymore your eyes well get all puffy. He  
  
won't like that. Silly girl!"  
  
Ranma succeeded where everyone else failed Leela was so relieved to hear Ryouga would  
  
really be all right and so indignant that Ranma would point out her puffy eyes that she sat up and threw  
  
the pillow at Ranma.  
  
"Brat! My eyes aren't puffy! Stupid boy! Three weeks is forever. I miss him so much already  
  
it's awful. Go away!" She jumped off the bed and ran into her bathroom slamming the door.  
  
"That went well! Ranma, you are the rudest guy I know, telling her she had puffy eyes . . .  
  
sympathetic you're not."  
  
Danny was ready to defend his sister.  
  
"Yeah, I know, but it worked. She stopped bawlin' like a calf. She'll probably be ok now. Ya  
  
know?" Ranma clasped his hands behind his head and skipped backwards to avoid Danny's half  
  
hearted swing.  
  
"Ha! Ya missed me! Bleah!"  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
I don't care what anyone says. Even Ranma can't drink that much alcohol and not get a hang over.  
  
I'm working on a rewrite of the Neko-ken attack last chapter. Dogbertcarrol didn't like it and neither  
  
do I, so watch for update.  
  
Thanks to all the people who have been so kind in their reviews. I really appreciate you all.  
  
I have a fic on , and those people just don't review. If you're interested it's Time on a Chain  
  
by Yanagi. 


	23. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma!  
  
Sorry it took me so long to post. Document Manager ate my chapter then went down for repairs. Stupid Document  
  
Manager!  
  
Chapter 24  
  
The George team was sitting around a meeting table listening to Steven read a laundry list of disasters, big  
  
and small. It was kind of depressing although it could have been much worse as Steven was quick to point out.  
  
The list included: Ryouga is lost, Ranma got drunk and changed right out in public  
  
"At least no one died. Shuba will be missing from our group until Ryouga is found. He's set up his quarters  
  
over at Cen Ops until further notice. It's a good time for him to get more experience with that end of his job. And  
  
tracing Ryouga is going to take him and one of our better operatives some time"   
  
At this statement Leela let out a soft sob but managed not to break down. She still cried sometimes  
  
although she tried not to.   
  
The last week had been hard on everyone Ranma getting hurt and almost bleeding to death and Ryouga  
  
getting lost then trying for a happy time brought Ranma to get drunk and change into Ranko in public. What a mess.  
  
Kuno got pompous, "Ryouga being lost is unfortunate but not unexpected that is not the disaster it could be.  
  
However, as to the other. Ranma, one would think that you of all people would not drink to excess. Your well  
  
known dislike of being out of control . . . "  
  
"Piss off, Kuno! Steven's already had a piece a' my ass. You can't have another. I screwed up. We can't  
  
fix it. Move on!"  
  
Since everyone had already had a jab at Ranma he wasn't putting up with any more, he could only  
  
apologize so many times before his patience gave out.  
  
"So I got drunk and changed in public. It's not that bad, I said."  
  
Danny stuck his two cents' in. "No, not that bad. But I'd have given anything to have seen ya strippin'.  
  
Ranko has quite a rack after all and I heard one a' the guys had t' wrap ya in a jacket and throw ya over his  
  
shoulder."  
  
Ranma's head came up and his eyes widened. "I what? I was . . . s s s strippin' . . . Danny, " Ranma  
  
gulped and turned white as a sheet. "How far . . . I . . . well it's not as if . . . " Ranma wasn't too worried about  
  
being naked, he'd never been able to convince himself that it was different when he was in his girl form. He was a  
  
guy, period. But somehow stripping was different, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was. Ranma thumped  
  
his head on the table. He'd thought he'd only changed, but with the stripping no wonder he'd attracted more  
  
attention than Steven liked.  
  
"Yes, stripping. And attracting quite a bit of unwelcome attention." Steven looked grim for a minute, then  
  
shrugged. "I'll admit I'm sorry I missed it. However it's the attention I'm worried about. It's your body and you  
  
can do what you want with it; within reason that is."  
  
Steven cleared his throat. "If I could continue. We have several sightings of Ryouga. He's deep in Central  
  
China. I knew letting him leave Japan was a mistake but he went with his team and that's where their insertion point  
  
was.  
  
"If only he hadn't lost his gear."  
  
Ranma interrupted. "If only I had been born rich and handsome. We can 'if only' till doomsday and it won't  
  
fix this. We need to figure out a way t' stop this happening again. And not just to Ryu. Didn't ya say we lost a guy  
  
because Med Evac didn't find him in time?"  
  
Steven nodded and went on with his briefing.  
  
"Ryouga's headed for Nepal near as we can tell.. That's where Dorie is. She has gone after him She's at  
  
least four days behind him but she has to ask around so it's hard to keep up. He travels fast."  
  
"If only he hadn't lost his GPS and phone at once. We can't track him electronically."  
  
Ranma took his cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the table.  
  
"Ya can find that phone fine, but if it's not in my hand ya can't find me. We need a way t' find our people,  
  
not just their gear. That's the problem, we need something that's harder to lose."  
  
Steven rubbed his face; he looked tired and worried.  
  
"What do you suggest? I'm out of ideas. You're right, we lost a good man because we couldn't find him,  
  
both he and Ryu lost their phones. It's a real problem."  
  
Ranma wandered around the room. First perched on the end of the table, then in a corner, back to his  
  
chair, around and around.   
  
All the others thought too. Finally Kuno snarled, "Ranma! Sit still! I almost had something but you  
  
distracted me . . . again."  
  
"Sorry . . . Sorry . . . but I can't think and be still like you. I've got something, but I can't make sense of it   
  
. . . Danny you were telling me about something the other day. About a car. But for the life a' me I can't think why  
  
that would stick in my head."  
  
"I was telling you about how they low jack cars so when they get stolen . . . "  
  
Kuno interrupted; "You can't low jack a person. Not like a car but there is a thing they put on criminals to  
  
put them on house arrest . . . "  
  
Leela burst out, "Ryu isn't a criminal! What are you all babbling about?"  
  
Everyone else started to talk at once.  
  
Ranma shouted then all down. "Shut up! Shut up! That's it . . . sorta' . . . We need Perkins in here."  
  
Steven pressed the buzzer on the table and a strange woman came in the door. Everybody looked at her  
  
but Ranma reacted oddly.  
  
"Who's that?" He looked almost fierce.  
  
"That's Stella, she's Dorris's fill-in. She'll be here until Dorie finds Ryouga. She's ok."  
  
Steven didn't seem bothered by Ranma's reaction but everyone else wondered what was going on.  
  
"Please tell Mr. Perkins that he is wanted in the meeting room. Oh, Stella bring tea will you?"  
  
Mr. Perkins brought the tea in himself. He looked around the room, served tea and finally just sat down and  
  
waited.  
  
Ranma took over the whole thing without thinking and Steven didn't try to stop him. He was proudly  
  
watching a future commander take care of his people.  
  
"Mr. Perkins, we need a way t' keep track a' our people. We've lost Ryouga," At Mr. Perkins' distressed  
  
look he hurried to say. "He's not dead! He's lost lost. Headed for Nepal or Tebet last we heard. He's not called  
  
The Eternal Lost Boy for nothing. He did fairly well, staying here at the compound, with his GPS and Phone, even  
  
found his way around Nerima but he lost them both and now he's gone."  
  
"We need something smaller that we can wear. Danny you tell him." So Danny told Perkins about low  
  
jacking a car and then Kuno explained his idea with the house arrest tracker. Perkins sat so still while they talked  
  
that Ranma was just getting ready to get sharp with him for not paying attention when he nodded   
  
"I see. Low-jack a person. Hhhmmm! It can be done. The tracking device used in the ankle bracelets for  
  
house arrest are bulky and low powered but they use repeater stations connected to phones. Low jacks work off  
  
the battery in the vehicle we'd . . . but you aren't interested in the detail's just results. We need to keep it small.."   
  
Mr. Perkins mumbled off staring into space.  
  
Leela spoke up, Miss Fashion Conscious; "It can't be some ugly plastic thingy. It's got to be nice or no one  
  
will use it. They'll forget it or just refuse to wear it. Maybe we could have a bracelet or a watch or something like  
  
that. Something that people will want to wear or wear because it has another function."  
  
"Yeah, I need a watch. Somethin' really sturdy, maybe machined out a' one block of steel or titanium. I  
  
break every watch I get hold of. Training like we do, whatever it is had better be able to withstand a pretty heavy  
  
impact." Ranma looked around "Well anyone have a better idea! I already have a bracelet and don't need another.  
  
Girls could wear a bracelet."  
  
Kuno pulled his watch off, tossed it to Mr. Perkins and let him look it over. It was one of a kind machined  
  
out of solid titanium with a four-segment band and heavy fastener a tri-fold clip style. It was huge with three  
  
different stems and a face plate that covered the face with piercing for the dials. It was an old-fashioned winder. "It  
  
was grandfathers'. You can use it as a model; take the works out and put in all digital with a digital light up face and  
  
it's got plenty of room for a big battery and the other components. At least I think so"  
  
"I'd hate to ruin a family heirloom by gutting it but I can use it for a model all right. It's fancy enough to  
  
wear to a party but it'll stand up to lots of abuse. I can have them done by next week. You can beta them, then we  
  
can go into production."  
  
Ranma took some questions mostly about what the girls would get and told Leela since she was worried  
  
she should go with Mr. Perkins and design something herself. She left with Mr. Perkins and the rest wandered out  
  
or stayed to drink tea and gossip.  
  
Ranma left headed for the exercise field in search of some of his secondary team just to check up on them.  
  
He didn't make it. He ran into Tendo Nabiki.  
  
"Hey Saotome-san! Wait up! I've been looking for you everywhere." Nabiki ran to catch up with Ranma  
  
who was going in the opposite direction.  
  
Ranma turned around and waited for her to catch him up. "Hey yourself, whacha doin' here? Lost? I can  
  
help ya find where ya need t' go."  
  
"No. I found what I need. I need to talk to you. Steven Campbell sent word for me to keep my ear to the  
  
ground for word of anyone buying Magical objects. Better yet, anyone stealing them. I've dropped my report off at  
  
his office and his aid said to give you a copy. So here it is."  
  
Ranma took the folder, looked at it, then led Nabiki to the Mess Hall, where he got her some coffee and a  
  
pastry. He sat down by her; careful to put his back to a wall and stuck his nose in the report.  
  
It wasn't good. Someone was looking for a magical bracelet/necklace which turned a man into a woman or  
  
vice versa. The buyer wasn't sure. A description of the happenings at the bar followed. The buyer wanted any  
  
information pertaining to the question of magical jewelry described above. The price made Ranma blink.  
  
"Ya haven't taken him up on this? Why not?"  
  
Nabiki looked at Ranma for a minute then said, "I don't do business with that sort of person, no matter  
  
how broke we are. I'll admit that it's really tempting but I'd rather not take the chance of being turned into a toad  
  
or something even nastier. All I know about the buyer is it's a witch of some sort."  
  
"What do ya mean, no matter how broke . . . what's wrong? Nabiki talk t' me." Ranma felt guilty; he knew  
  
he and Genma had cost the Tendo's a lot of money. Their habit of destroying the house and dojo had to have been  
  
expensive but surely they had insurance. He said as much.  
  
"They cancelled it after the eight or ninth time you or one of your crazy opponents destroyed half the place  
  
we have a third mortgage and I can't earn enough to pay the payments and keep up everything else and buy  
  
groceries. Akane still needs money for school and so do I when it comes to grocery shopping Kasumi can squeeze  
  
a yen til it screams for mercy but it's still not enough. If Daddy would only get himself together and teach. But all he  
  
does anymore is sit around and cry. He misses your Pop. Oh, by the way, here . . . I found it in his room under the  
  
floor boards after he left that last time. It's all there. No matter how tempting it is, I don't steal." She handed Ranma  
  
an envelope with a wad of cash in it.  
  
Ranma took the envelope, opened it and found twenty thousand dollars American and his contract in it.  
  
"Ya look in this? Read the papers?"  
  
"No I didn't! I have a suspicion what's in there and I'm scared to look. I know I'm greedy as hell. It's the  
  
only way to keep the family going but I draw the line at that sort of thing. Why?"  
  
Nabiki knew everyone thought she was just a mercenary bitch, but how else was she to keep the family  
  
home out of foreclosure? She was too young to have a regular job, this information business was lucrative without  
  
taking away from school, so she stuck it out as best she could and hoped that the Department 13 people would  
  
throw more her way as she got older.  
  
"Read it! I'm reading this report; which is very informative by the way." Ranma knew that the Tendo's had  
  
never been told anything more than the bare bones of what happened.  
  
Nabiki started to read but they were both interrupted by a newbie who thought he would prove how tough  
  
he was by picking on the 'little George'.  
  
"Hey! I like the jewelry. Sissy guys wear jewelry. Why don't you come outside and give me a go?" The  
  
man took hold of Ranma's wrist and started handling the bracelet  
  
"Don't touche me." Ranma pulled his wrist out of the man's grasp and turned back to his report.  
  
"Damn, don't be so stuck up ya little chicken shit." The moron grabbed Ranma again.  
  
Nabiki got cold chills; Ranma looked at the man like a shark looks at dinner, all blank, cold eyes.  
  
"Don't . . . touch . . . me." Ranma took the man's hand and squeezed it til the man dropped to his knees  
  
whimpering. "I don't like it." Ranma sounded as calm as if he was talking about the weather.   
  
"Sorry.. Sorry I made a mistake. Let me go!" He whimpered like a kicked pup and tried to retrieve his  
  
hand.  
  
Ranma opened his hand as if he had forgotten he had closed it. "Go away! You'll frighten my friend. She'll  
  
think you're all stupid."  
  
Nabiki stared at Ranma and gulped. Ranma had changed, he was harder and colder than she remembered.  
  
"What!? Read the damn papers. I'm sorry if I scared ya, but I can't let that type a' thing slide. Sooner or  
  
later one a' those idiots will jump me from behind and then I might kill whoever before I realize they're just stupid.  
  
Bein' a slave-gladiator, then a. . . . for want of a better word . . . deamon hunter will change a man and not always  
  
for the better . . . Read damnit, I gotta finish this, then I've got some questions."  
  
Nabiki read the contract and just about cried. What had Genma done? Why would that stupid man be so  
  
careless?  
  
"I can see you have a real reason to be mad at your Pop. I mean selling you . . . that's just incredible. But  
  
you were only gone two or three days. No one ever told us much. When you broke up with Akane you told her  
  
some but she won't even talk about it. Just says you have delusions of grander. She's really mad and won't even  
  
mention your name anymore."  
  
Ranma looked up and realized that Steven, in respecting his privacy, had left him to tell what he wanted to.  
  
So now he had to go through the whole sorry tale with Nabiki. He waved at one of the cooks helpers and asked  
  
him to bring more coffee and some snacks. The cook was happy to oblige and brought a thermal pot and a plate of  
  
cookies  
  
"Here ya go. Any thing else ya want just ask. Uh, can I have your autograph?"  
  
Ranma looked at the man like he'd lost his mind but signed the book.  
  
"Ran-chan, I don't believe that man just asked for your autograph. What's going on? I think Akane  
  
dismissed what you told her a little too readily. Come on tell all. I won't put it in the data base if you say not to."  
  
So Ranma told Nabiki everything, he didn't spare himself, Genma or Akane. He ended up with, "And I'm  
  
not comin' back. Akane hit me for the last time and I have stuff t' do here, so I'm not taking over the Dojo either."  
  
"Well what the hell are we supposed to do. Daddy won't run the Dojo, and he won't let us girls. If we  
  
don't get a steady flow of cash soon, we'll lose the property. If you could only come back once a week to teach a  
  
few classes."  
  
Ranma shook his head. He wasn't about to try to travel back and forth from the Compound to the other  
  
side of Nerima, almost two hours one way. "Nah! Ain't gonna happen. Why the hell don't ya just let Akane teach.  
  
She's capable. She's not up t' my weight, never will be, but she's good, real good. She'd make a good teacher. I  
  
know your Daddy don't want . . . " Ranma got a funny look on his face; he sat for a while sipping coffee and eating  
  
cookies.   
  
Nabiki started to speak but at Ranma's palm stuck almost into her face she decided to keep quiet until  
  
Ranma spoke.  
  
"Look. I'm never gonna teach at the dojo, but I got an idea. Soun won't like it but what the hell does he  
  
expect ya t' do go broke and live in the streets. Just put a damn ad in the paper and start up classes, change the  
  
name of the dojo to Any Thing Goes Martial Arts for Women. That'll attract a bunch a' girls who don't want t'  
  
attend a co-ed dojo with a bunch a' guys learin' and laughn' at them. Just do it. Soun'll either accept it or he won't,  
  
so he spends some time cryin', he'd do that anyway and Akane . . . I think one a' the reasons she's so mad all the  
  
time is that she knows she's good enough t' run the dojo and she feels humiliated because Soun won't see her as a  
  
real Martial Artist instead a' just a girl fooling around. Which she doesn't do. I mean I've seen her. She's a hell of a  
  
breaker. Every day after school she spends two hours workin' out. Ya know she does! Go watch her sometime  
  
instead a just interruption' her for somethin'"  
  
Nabiki just stared at Ranma for a moment then wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to him.  
  
He read the ad and shoved it back across the table with a nod.  
  
"I'll see ya t' the gate if ya'd like."  
  
While they were walking back to the gate to meet the van Nabiki watched Ranma. He was different from  
  
the boy she remembered. He wasn't so cocky or brash. He didn't seem quite so; the only thing she could think of  
  
was defensive; of his manhood. It was like he couldn't care less anymore what springers thought of him. As they  
  
walked he waived to several men and laughed at some guy clowning around.  
  
"Hey, Yaru Ka?" The man looked so hope ful that Ranma laughed.  
  
"Omae aho ya de yo!"   
  
"Uh . . . didn't I just say hello, how are you?"  
  
"Na! Ya just asked me t' fight an I said 'Man you're a moron'. Don't let your friends get ya into trouble.  
  
Look stuff up first." Ranma shook the man's hand and slapped him on the shoulder  
  
Nabiki nearly fell over; before, Ranma would just have socked the man into next week.  
  
"What? I learned a little restraint. I can't learn? I'm just some dumb bimbo jock?" Ranma was still a little  
  
defensive he discovered withe some people he had known before.  
  
"No, I'm sorry Ranma but . . . I don't know . . . You're just so different. I mean with everything you've  
  
gone through." Nabiki sighed, she knew she'd better shut up before she really put her foot in her mouth.  
  
Ranma just started walking, motioning for Nabiki to follow.  
  
As they crossed the Quad Ranma's hair came down with a soft whoosh.  
  
"Damnit, this bites. I can't seem t' keep any elastics. All I had was a piece a' thread. Do you have an  
  
elastic in your . . . no, you wouldn't . . . hair's too short." Ranma made another exasperated sound and looked  
  
around.   
  
Just then Sunny saw Ranma from across the way. Ranma waved to her and she came running across to  
  
them.   
  
"I..... Ran-chan why is your hair down do you want an elastic I can braid it for you real quick who is this is  
  
that Akane why is she here what does she want Do not put your hand mmmmmm!" As usual Ranma had to put his  
  
hand over her mouth to get in a word edge ways.  
  
"This is Nabiki, she's Akane's sister. She brought me a report and, yes; I'd love it if you would braid my  
  
hair, Koi." The expression of affection on Ranma's face as he looked a Sunny dashed Nabiki's hopes of Akane  
  
and Ranma making it up. She followed as Ranma walked over to a bench and sat down between Sunny's feet.  
  
Nabiki watched as Sunny braided Ranma's hair, she pulled it tight and braided it into a firm braid then  
  
twisted an elastic around the end. Kissing him on top of the head she then bopped him and tried to step over him.  
  
Ranma waited until she had one leg over his shoulder and stood up making her shriek and grab the short hair on top  
  
of his head.   
  
"Noooo! Don't! Raaanmaaa! You'll drop me." Sunny giggled and clutched at Ranma as he rolled her  
  
over his shoulder and caught her in his arms.  
  
"I won't drop ya, Goofy. I'd rather die that hurt ya, stooopid." Ranma juggled Sunny, slinging her over one  
  
shoulder feet first, then wrapping her around his waist and back into his arms. Of course she had to cooperate. But  
  
they'd been learning swing dancing in some of their very sparse spare time so they just looked cute. A little  
  
dangerous but defiantly cute.  
  
Nabiki walked off mumbling. "I don't care what Akane says, she really lost out. He's just too cute and that  
  
Sunny's got her hooks into him good. I hope she's nice to him"  
  
"Hey, wait up. I said I'd walk ya t' the van. Besides I still didn't get t' ask my questions."   
  
"Do ya know who the witch is and how she plans t' use my . . . whatever ya call it . . . Can ya find out  
  
where the jerk lives? Anything about the building? Schematics a' the security system, floor plans? Stuff like that . . .   
  
and how much is this gonna cost me?"  
  
Nabiki blinked at Ranma then sighed. "It won't cost you anything Ranma. Steven has already asked the  
  
same questions and he'll pay me. Don't worry. He pays well and told me not to take any chances. I can tell you the  
  
witch isn't really powerful and is collecting magical items. I think, just off the top of my head, the idiot is just a  
  
collector. Doesn't do anything with any of the objects just . . . well . . . displays them at cocktail parties or  
  
whatever. Some people are like that. Just have to have the best, most, whatever, you know."  
  
"No, I don't. I think this jerk's a lot more dangerous than you all think. I got belly rumblin's and if I've  
  
learned anything in the last few months it's t' listen t' my gut. The last two times I didn't I got in real trouble."  
  
Ranma rubbed his shoulder. It was completely healed but it still bothered him on some level.  
  
"What is it? You said you got hurt in the . . . What did you call that attack?" Nabiki knew Ranma had  
  
glossed over some of the things that had happened. Mostly anything that made him look stupid or careless.  
  
"It's just where the Imp scratched me. It itches or somethin' . . . bothers me. It's healed but it left a scar. I  
  
think . . . it's a change in my body and I'm not used to it yet. It's nothing."  
  
"May I see? I think if I could tell Akane something concrete she'd be happier about this whole thing."   
  
Nabiki just gulped as Ranma opened his shirt. His chest had developed even more and his abs were so cut  
  
that she felt a bit faint. She knew what it took to maintain a body like that and the work Ranma was putting into  
  
training was incredible. Then she saw the scars. Three ragged looking marks that ran from the middle of his pectoral  
  
muscle straight across to the hollow of his shoulder. They were still pink and looked like they weren't fading away  
  
anytime soon. She felt tears filling her eyes.  
  
"Ranma, Oh Geeze that really had to hurt . . . a lot. But the attack was only what two, three days ago?"  
  
"Yeah, Sunny's a healer. She took care of it. I was stupid, I didn't close my vest like I shoulda' so I got  
  
clawed. Nearly bled t' death but ya know . . . it really didn't hurt at the time. Felt like a bitch in the chopper  
  
though."  
  
Nabiki opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. She finally closed it and gave up, she couldn't  
  
think of a single thing to say.  
  
As they walked to the gate Nabiki studied Ranma. She couldn't see much difference in the way he looked,  
  
maybe a little older; a lot harder {How much time does he spend training}  
  
"Ya know you need to see your Dad. He's been asking to speak to you for weeks. You should see him, if  
  
only for your own peace of mind."  
  
Nabiki wasn't prepared for Ranma's cold glare. She felt chilled to the bone and backed up a few steps.  
  
"I ain't gonna go see th' old prick. I don't ever wanna see his face again. Nabiki, ya know how he was at  
  
your place? Well, he was six times worse in the field. I never got enough of anything. I was always cold or hot;  
  
hungry, thirsty, tired. I went with him because I didn't know better. I'd rather go through Hell Week every month  
  
for a year that go see him. I don't have a father, I never did."  
  
Ranma clenched his hands into fists and shook his head furiously; bangs and pigtail flying.  
  
"After that explosion I think you need to see him more than ever before. You need to make peace with him  
  
and yourself. You need to tell him how you feel. Get it off your chest or back, as the case may be . . . No! Don't  
  
flip out again. Just think about it. I won't ever mention it again. You'll do whatever you want. You always do."  
  
Nabiki turned around and started walking again. Ranma got himself under control and found that he was  
  
seriously considering what she'd said. {Damnit. I just want t' hate the old ..}  
  
"Ok. I'll think about it, I promise. Come on . . . "  
  
Just then Ranma looked over Nabiki's shoulder and started swearing. He grabbed her hand and started for  
  
a group of men who were standing around in a circle. Inside the circle was a guy swinging a rope around in messy  
  
loops.  
  
"Hey watch out. You're gonna hit . . . Shit!" Ranma had caught the rope in one hand and blocked the  
  
flying weight with the other, just in time to keep it from hitting the boy in the eye.  
  
"Ya wanna lose an eye? Ya dope! That's way too heavy a weight for a beginner. How the hell did ya get . .  
  
. Oh, I see, made it yourself did ja'. Baka ja nai no ka zo! Urusai! I mean Shut up! Listen t' me. I know what I'm  
  
talkin' about. Ya got no business with this. You'll put out an eye or crush your stupid skull. Gimme that!"  
  
Ranma took the rope dart from the kid and examined it. I was made from some kind of pendulum weight and a  
  
piece of clothes line. The rope was too long and the weight too heavy. Ranma knew he was the only one with the  
  
skill to handle such a weapon and he started to coil the cord intending to give it to the owners commanding officer.  
  
"Hey that's mine! You can't take it. You ain't the boss a' me. Give it back!"   
  
Ranma pinned the guy with a cold flat stare. "What's your name solder? Tompkins? Well, My name's  
  
Saotome Ranma and I know I'm not the boss a' you, but I'll find out who is and I'll have ya on report before ya  
  
can say baka. I'm the only one on this base with skills enough t' handle this dart. The rope's too long and the  
  
weight's too heavy for anyone but me. Ya almost lost an eye just now and I don't think ya wanna wash out  
  
because you're a careless jack ass"  
  
Then Thompkins made two mistakes; one, he pushed Ranma; two, he tried to take something from him.   
  
Pushing Ranma was like pushing a brick wall, nothing much happened, except Tompkins knocked himself off  
  
balance.   
  
Trying to take anything from Ranma seemed to activate something deep inside him. It was always like trying  
  
to take prey from a cat {Can anyone say Neko-kun} But Ranma didn't hurt Thompkins, he took hold of the wrist  
  
of his reaching hand and just pulled up on it, then he kicked his feet out from under him, dumping him on his back in  
  
the dirt and put his foot on the boys' chest.  
  
"If I was the vindictive type I'd step down hard about now and crush your chest, but I'm not, so I'll just  
  
demonstrate this and you'll see what I mean."  
  
Ranma took his foot off the boy and stepped into the center of the circle. He began to swing the dart in a  
  
circle, slowly letting out the rope until he'd opened the circle; the men moving back as the dart got too close for  
  
comfort.   
  
"Ok everybody watch the expert and learn why these things are a lot more dangerous than you think."  
  
Ranma started a kata that made everyone including Nabiki drop their jaws. The dart seemed to have a life  
  
of it's own. It flickered in and out of Ranmas hands. He let the rope wrap around his body, he swung it over his  
  
head and at the end of every swing and loop, the dart flicked out like a snake's head striking, the rope hummed as  
  
it cut the air. Ranma was half way through the kata when Steven walked up. Not recognizing Ranma, he blew up  
  
"Hey! Freeze right there! Coil that rope! Attention!"  
  
Everyone braced to attention, even Ranma. He knew he wasn't supposed to use darts or whips in a circle.   
  
It was much too dangerous. What would happen if the rope or the links joining the segments of a whip broke? A  
  
loose piece of a flying soft weapon was as dangerous as a bullet.  
  
Steven walked around and took the dart from Ranma without even looking at his face. He had already  
  
recognized him by the way he stood.  
  
"Ok Saotome. I hope you have a good reason for breaking the rules for soft weapons. You can start  
  
explaining. Now!"  
  
"Lost my temper a little. I found this baka swingin' that dart around in a small circle. It's a wonder he didn't  
  
hit someone and the only reason he still has two eyes is I caught the dart before it hit him. I'll report to your office  
  
as soon as I take Nabiki t' the van. It's waitin' for her. Gimme ten minutes."  
  
"Ok. Ten minutes. Tompkins is it? You report now. I have a few things to say to you, and then your  
  
commanding officer gets what's left. Move out now!" Thompkins took off running for Stevens office and Steven  
  
gave Ranma a 'later for you' look.  
  
One of the older men came to Ranma's rescue.  
  
"Excuse me Sir. It really wasn't Mr. Ranma's fault. That kid got a little rough with him and he's bigger  
  
than he is. So I guess it pissed him off .He said he'd show us he was the only one who could handle that dart and  
  
he was right. So . . . Uh . . . Well, I guess that's all I have to say, Sir. Please, can't you give him a pass?"   
  
Steven looked the older man in the face. "You mean to tell me that idiot tried to fight Ranma and he's still  
  
standing?"  
  
"Well . . . Yeah. He dumped him on his butt. Other than that, he just cleared the circle and gave his  
  
demonstration."  
  
"Ok, Ranma, you can skip the visit. Your punishment for losing your temper is five hundred push ups. As  
  
soon as you get Nabiki to the van I expect to see you in the Quad."  
  
Ranma just nodded. Everyone else groaned or just wondered if Steven had lost his mind; five hundred push  
  
ups.  
  
"Thanks Steven. I really appreciate ya takin' it easy on me. I know better than t' lose my temper but it's  
  
just too much when some stupid kid tries t' kill himself with a weapon he hasn't got the skills t' use. I'll be back  
  
soon. By."  
  
Nabiki looked around, most of the men seemed to be completely staggered. "What? He does a thousand  
  
each morning. Ya think he's weak? My sister does five hundred and she's little"  
  
Ranma smirked at the gathered men, grabbed Nabiki by the hand and started for the van. This time they  
  
made it.  
  
"Look Nabiki, I'm not taking E-mail from Akane, but I'd sure like t' hear from Kasumi. Think about what I  
  
said about Akane taking over the dojo. 'k?"  
  
"I don't need to think about it. It's a fait accompli. I'll tell Kasumi to mail you right away. I'll be in touch  
  
with Steven as soon as I find out anything and I'll just send you a copy . . . Free. By."  
  
Ranma waved by to Nabiki and headed for the quad; he had five hundred push ups to do  
  
{Damn, I'm too young for this shit.}   
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
I've been thinking about the Neko-ken in chap 22 I rewrote it but it breaks up the flow of the chapter too much.   
  
Not being one to gobble up all my goodies at once I'll save a good description for later. I do have a dragon to slay  
  
after all {Poor Ranma has to go to China}  
  
When I talk about Neko-ken, I'm talking about attacks. Neko-kun is when Ranma exhibits cat-like qualities like  
  
not giving up something or snarling when someone messes with his food. Thanks dogbertcarroll.  
  
Also I'd like to thank CM Aeris Queen of Insanity, Gopu (), Brother Angelon[sometimes the message is  
  
important], Jerry Unipeg, Ghost Dragon () [it's a bed, you sleep in it :-)], Niana Kuonji [fruit of some sort is  
  
coming], Night Owl123, gourrygabriev610 [again, it's a bed ]. Thanks for your kind and helpful reviews.  
  
Reader() Well Yeah {Waves editorial magic wand} Thanks.  
  
Koi no baka means Silly Love. (Tone of voice means a lot.)  
  
Yaru Ka? Want to fight!  
  
Baka ja nai no ka zo 


	24. Chapter 25

Disclaimer I don't own Ranma  
  
Chapter 25  
  
"What's wrong with Kuno? He's acting almost like he did before he got on medication"  
  
Ranma looked at Danny and shrugged. "I been watching him. He's taking his pills like he should but they don't seem to be working and the pill is different. Find Sunny will ya. I'm gonna get t' the bottom of this now. He was doing so good"  
  
Ranma headed for the dojo; he knew Kuno would be there working out. And he intended to get to the bottom of Kuno's behavior. He was acting enough like the old Kuno that they were all worried.  
  
"Hey, Kuno. Give it a rest. I need t' talk t' ya."  
  
Kuno turned around, from where Ranma was standing he could see that Kuno had worked up a sweat.  
Kuno jumped from where he was standing to get slightly in Ranma's face. "Shall we indulge in a bout of spirited combat? Man to man? Or shall you declare yourself . . . ."  
  
"Shut up! What the hell is wrong with ya? Ya act like ya use t' and it's not right. We're havein' a meetin' in the commons. Come on. And put up that sword before ya cut off a toe or something'"  
  
Ranma just caught Kuno by the shoulder when he tried to leave with the sword, took the sword from him and racked it.  
  
Pulling Kuno along behind him he headed for the commons.  
  
"Do you believe I have been perfidious? I take my medication as prescribed. I gave my word and the word of a Kuno is as good as carved in stone. I feel quite well, thank you. In fact I've never felt quite so blissful. Is that an appropriate word? I'm not sure. Perhaps I could look up somethin' . . . "  
  
"I ain't sure what blis . . . whatever is. But if ya mean you're freakin' out. Yeah ya are and it's creepin'  
us all out."  
  
Ranma reached the commons with Kuno in tow. Sunny was there and Danny; no Shuba, he was still looking for the also missing Ryouga. Leela slid in the door seconds later, her socks making her skid as she turned in the door.  
  
"What's up? Heard it was an emergency?"  
  
"Not a real bad one I don't think." Ranma nodded to a zoned out Kuno, who was staring out the window and composing a haiku to a cloud. "He's messed up and getting worse daily. We need to figure out what's going on. He was doing real good but now . . . Sunny what the hell is going on with him? Figure it out for me, please."  
  
Sunny went over to Kuno and took his hand, pulling him onto the couch beside her she patted his hand and asked; "How are you feeling today Kuno-kun? You seem to be a little confused. Have you been taking your medicine like you're supposed to?"  
  
Kuno frowned; "I don't think I feel as I should. Something is not quite correct. I feel like I use to before I got better. I'm afraid . . . " He looked like he was going to break down suddenly. "I hate feeling like this. I try to keep it under control but it's so hard. I know how I should act but the bad old ways are sneaking up on me again and I don't like it." He turned to Ranma helplessly. "Please. I don't like this.  
What's wrong with me? The old medicine worked. "  
  
Sunny put her hand on Kuno's cheek and turned his head to look at her again. "What do you mean the old medicine worked? Did your psychiatrist change your medicine? Do you remember? Danny go to his room and bring me his medicine please."  
  
"I, Tatewaki Kuno the Rising young . . . no that's not right. What's happening to me? It's all wrong."  
Kuno let his head hang, hiding his face in his sweaty hakamashita.  
  
Sunny patted his shoulder. "Don't worry we'll figure this out. I'm calling his Dr. I don't know why the idiot fooled with something that was working but I intend to find out. Where's my phone? Damnit, I left it in my room. Ranma, do you have yours?"  
  
"Yeah. Here. You gonna call his shrink?" Ranma couldn't hide his worry. Kuno was slipping fast. The last day or two he'd really reverted.  
  
Sunny called Kuno's Dr. and talked to him. Finally telling him that he was a fool and that he'd better renew Kuno's old perception. When he objected, she got nasty.  
  
"Well. All I can tell you is that he's going crazy right before our eyes. So unless the side effects are really bad you better leave well enough alone . . . They're what? . . . Oh, I see. You didn't tell him?  
Why not? . . . I'll talk to him about it and get right back to you."  
  
Sunny closed the phone and rubbed her forehead.  
  
"It seems that the medicine which works best for Kuno has some side effects. And he's getting one of the worst ones. I need to speak to him alone."  
  
Kuno seeing everyone looking at him had an attack of paranoia.  
  
"NO! I want Ranma here. I don't feel right. I don't understand why he changed my pills. They worked quite well and. Shit! Just tell me what's going on. What side effects?"  
  
Sunny looked uncomfortable. Maybe we should talk privately first. The effects are somewhat umm personal.  
  
Kuno was by now really losing his patience. "I don't care what the effects are. I mean, I don't care if they know them. Just tell me what they are. If you all know, then you can help me with them. I feel like I'm falling apart here. It's all I can do not to start spouting poetry. If you don't get on with it, I swear I'll recite the Illiad to you . . . in Greek."  
  
"God, anything but that. All right. I'll spill, but you're not going to like this. The side effect the Dr. was talking about . . . The medication can result in sterility, especially in people our age. So he changed the medication. We'll try another and another until we find . . . "  
  
Kuno interrupted; "Sterility. What difference does that make to me? I don't care. I want to go back to the old medication. It works, this shit doesn't."  
  
Sunny patted his hand and looked at Ranma. "Maybe he doesn't really understand. What do I do? You try Ran-chan"  
  
"UH . . . Kuno? You paying attention? Sterility . . . uh . . . ya can't have kids."  
  
"Saotome, I'm insane. Not stupid or ignorant. I know what you're trying to say. I've got the last rags of sanity gathered around me. Pay attention. I don't care if I can't have kids in fact it's good do you really think that I'm ever going to have a child. How could I condemn a child to the life I live? My insanity is hereditary, for God sake. How can I have a child who will be like me or even worse Kodachi? Living in constant fear that I'll forget my meds or that they'll stop working. I've been scared to death for the last few days. I can't live like this, not since I know how I'm supposed to feel. I still have some of the old medication left. Sunny, if I take it now, how long before I get better again?"  
  
Sunny was on the phone again. After talking to the Dr again she turned to Kuno telling him to take a pill right away and then to go back to his old schedule. "In a day or two you should be back to normal.  
Don't worry. This medication doesn't stop working. If you're sure, I'll put a note in your file that you are aware of the effects and are willing to accept them. That way they won't fool with your meds again.  
Didn't that stupid man explain why he was changing your meds to you?"  
  
"No, he just said that this prescription was better for me. I'm going to start asking a lot more questions.  
Believe me. I'm going to take a shower and then lie down til that pill takes effect. I may lock myself in my room til I'm back to what passes for normal with me."  
  
Ranma motioned to Danny and Leela. "Danny, why don't you take Kuno to his room and give him a hand? Leela, I'd like you to take a note to the Dr yourself. Hand deliver it to him and no one else."  
  
Ranma wrote a nasty note to the Dr. telling him if he ever endangered his crew again he'd be seeing him in person. Signing it Saotome Ranma 'PS I'm not quite sane myself so be careful of my people.'  
  
Leela came back about ten minutes later to find Ranma sitting between Sunny's feet while she brushed his hair. He turned his head slightly to see who was there and Leela smiled at him. They looked so happy together. Sunny was weaning the silliest smile and Ranma looked relaxed with his hair down around his shoulders and his bangs in his eyes. His slow sleepy blink made him look so cute.  
  
Leela burst into tears. Ranma just got up and put his arms around her. Sunny came to her other side and did the same.  
  
"I miss Ryouga so much. When are they going to find him? What if he's dead. What if he's cold or hungry or hurt and I can't find him? Damnit!" Leela sniffled and tried to wipe her nose on her sleeve.  
  
"Here use this. Saotome, if you made her cry, I'll pound ya into the ground. What's going on here?"  
Ryouga handed Leela a bandanna and glared at Ranma. "Uhhh? Leela, I can't breathe?"  
  
Leela had attached herself to Ryouga and was hugging him as if she'd never let go. Then she did let go and smacked him in the chest as hard as she could.  
  
"Damn you! If you ever scare me like that again I'll chain ya to me. I swear. Don't you ever get lost like that again! Where were you?"  
  
Ryouga looked embarrassed. "I never get hurt or go hungry and I don't notice the cold much. If ya want, I'll let Ranma smack me for ya, I barely felt that. I feel really bad ya felt like . . . scared for me?  
I'm sorry I scared ya. I wound up in Nepal. And if ya want t' chain me to ya I won't complain. But how are we gonna . . . Oh! Steven gave me this." Ryouga displayed a watch that was a carbon copy of Kuno's antique. " And one for you, Ranma, I really think this is going to be good. I can't lose it unless I take it off but Steven threatened to weld it . . . mmmmmmm"  
  
Leela kissed Ryouga to shut him up. It worked.  
  
Ranma led Sunny out of the room wishing he had the nerve to kiss her but she'd just smack him and call him a pervert so he didn't even try.  
  
"Just like that he comes back? No . . . apology nothing?" Sunny was bemused and a little mad.  
  
"Yeah. It used to happen so often that we just kinda got over it. Ya know? He'd be gone a week or two and just be back. No big deal. But I guess it was. We just didn't notice so much. Kinda sad really"  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
"Steven, Dorie said it was ok for me to come in so I did." Ranma stuck his head around the door of Steven's office.  
  
"Hey. Ranma, come in. I'm reading some boring reports so I'm glad to see you. What do you need?"  
Steven pinched the bridge of his nose. The reports were not very good, the Chinese had finally confessed that incursions had been happening for the last six months, so there was a lot of clean up to do. And the look on Ranma's face said he had something important up his sleeve.  
  
"I need t' see my Pop. I keep havin' this nightmare and Ryouga says the only way t' get rid of it is t'  
see him. I can't quite decide which is worse havin' the dream or seein' him. But Ryu says lack a' sleep is beginnin' t' interfere with my trainin' and so I'm gonna go. Can ya fix it for me?"  
  
"Sure. I can get you into see him this afternoon, if you want. I'd do it as soon as possible, so as not to lose your nerve. You know? Want to wait while I make a call?" Steven pinned Ranma with a speculative look.  
  
Ranma didn't but he stayed anyway. Steven called the warden of the prison Genma was in and talked to him for a minute. Then made another call to the motor pool.  
  
"I can't get a driver for you. Have you gotten your drivers licence yet?" Steven looked at Ranma. He didn't look like he was paying much attention, just staring out the window like he saw something nasty.  
{Memories can be a bitch.}  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, licence. Got one. If I have t' drive myself, I'd like a motorcycle. I'm not really much for being shut in ya know."  
  
"Ok, I'll get you something nice. Just be careful! I don't feel like enduring one of Sunny's scolds because you wrecked yourself."  
  
"Ok" Ranma gave Steven a big grin. "I promise I won't wrap myself around a tree like you did last week"  
  
"Damnit! Sunny's got a big mouth. I take that back! She's got a Everyready Bunny mouth. It just keeps on going."  
  
Ranma suddenly looked mad. "Hey! Watch it. Don't pick on Sunny. Not around me any way."  
  
"Sorry, didn't mean anything. I'm just recovering from her scold for wrecking myself. Go to the motor pool they'll give you a bike." Steven smiled behind Ranma's back. {So that's the way it goes.}  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma had dressed carefully for his visit. He wanted to make a good impression; not on his Pop but on the warden and guards. He didn't want them to think he was anything like Genma. He was wearing black twill Dockers, a red silk tank top with a black button down shirt on top of it and a black twill casual jacket. He had given up his Chinese shoes months ago for boots so he was wearing a pair of black biking boots. And his new watch. Sunny had made sure he was wearing it just before he left.  
  
As he stepped off the bike he wondered exactly where he should go, he'd never done this before and didn't intend to do it again. Luckily a guard came over and asked if he was Saotome before he lost his nerve and left.  
  
"Yeah. Ranma. Wha'd ya want?"  
  
"Easy there! Don't get hostile. Steven told us to look out for you. He said there were problems between you two. You don't have to worry about him attacking you. The same electronics that keep him from escaping will deep him a good boy. Came from some stuff Steven discovered somewhere or other."  
  
Ranma didn't know wether to laugh or cry I didn't take a genius to figure out what the electronics really were.  
  
When he got to the first gate, the garde asked him if he had any prohibited materials and Ranma laughed "I guess I do." He produced the SP-24 and gave it to the gate guard "I want that back the minute I leave, no messing around."  
  
"Yeah kid, who do you think you are? Department 13 or something." The guard's authoritative attitude set Ranma even more on edge.  
  
" I am Department 13 and not in the mood for some pissy prison guard. Ya wanna search me?"  
  
His attitude made the gate guard mad. So he did want to search him, in fact he insisted on a strip search. Ranma just laughed nastily, followed him into the side room and took off his clothes, folding them neatly so that they wouldn't wrinkle. When he turned, he smirked at the guard.  
  
"You ain't gonna like what ya see, but I don't want any puking or anything like that." Ranma concentrated and brought blood to the surface of his skin, showing off his scars. "Pretty huh, courtesy of the men my Pop sold me to. Ya done yet?"  
  
The guard just gulped and left the room  
  
The warden greeted him when he left the room. He didn't look pleased  
  
"Got off on the wrong foot didn't you young man? We don't want any trouble. Steven said you had authority figure issues."  
Ranma gave the Warden an exasperated look.  
  
"Yeah. Sometimes I just can't resist gettin' into a pissin' contest with ass-holes like that guy and I'm not in the best a' moods. I don't wannna be here, but my shrink says I need t' do this. So can we just find Pop and get this over with?"  
  
"I heard that he sold you and I'm sure it was an unpleasant experience but . . ."  
  
"Getting hit in the head with a brick is an unpleasant experience. Ya got surveillance cameras in that room . . . I know because I heard it whine. Look at the tape and then we'll discuss it."  
  
Ranma followed the man into a small room. There was a small table and two chairs, they were all bolted to the floor and the only way to sit in the chairs was to swivel them sideways. There was also a two-way mirror on the wall.  
  
"We'll be keeping an eye on you through that. If he tries anything, we'll be in here in a flash"  
  
"Yeah, you'll have t' rescue him because I'm not puttin' up with no shit from him, not no more, ever."  
  
Ranma lost every bit of the language skills he had when he got upset and his accent got so thick that the Warden wasn't sure exactly what he'd said, but he knew it wasn't good.  
  
"Don't be afraid. He won't hurt you, after all, you're his son."  
  
"Never made no dif. 'for this! Why 'ud it make any now?" Ranama sighed and shook his head. "Look I'm sorry I'm bein' a jack ass but this is really difficult and can we just get it over with?"  
  
The warden buzzed for Genma to be brought in.  
  
Genma peeked into the room then entered with his head down. He walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. He seemed very subdued.  
  
"Hello, Son. I'm glad to see you. I've been asking for you for months. Why didn't they tell you I wanted you before now?"  
  
Ranma wanted to scream; just like Pops blame everyone but himself.  
  
"Pop, they been tryin' t' get me t' see ya for months. I didn't want t' be here. I never wanted t' see ya again." Ranma bit his lip to keep from snarling.  
  
"I love you, Son, I never tried to hurt you. I just got caught up in the moment. You have no idea how much money they offered me and I didn't think but what I could get you back. I didn't know they were going to take you out of Japan, much less this world."  
  
Ranma just stared at Genma for a minute. "You knew what a Chain Child Agency was, didn't you!  
Damn you, you knew!"  
  
Ranma had all he could do not to smash him in the face. But he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of making him lose his temper, then he would feel justified in putting on that hurt, forlorn face he used to make Ranma feel guilty because he'd been rude. It never worked very well and usually just made him madder Guilt tripping him didn't have the effect it did on most kids.  
  
"Oh no I . . . Well, I guess I kinda did, but I meant to get you back right away, I just . . . I mean they moved you. I was only two days . . . I got drunk with Soun and . . . I'm sorry."  
  
Ranma took a deep cleansing breath; it didn't work. All he could do was snarl and swear. He tried hard not to lose his temper and almost succeeded. He didn't tear up the room like he wanted to. He could have, the table and chairs being bolted to the floor posed no obstacle to his strength but he was not going to act like a kid in a temper tantrum.  
  
Instead he just took off his jacket and shirts. Then he drew blood to the surface of his skin like he'd done for the guard. The scars on his back and shoulders grew livid and stood out against his skin like they were fresh wounds.  
  
"They whipped me Pop. I'm not a good boy. I didn't kill the man like they wanted me to. I killed him quick so he wouldn't suffer. You know about suffering? "At Genma's head shake he went on. "No, I didn't think so. I spent my life in misery and didn't even know it. I didn't understand until I started middle school, then Nerima showed me something of what I missed. But when I wound up in the Compound and Department 13 I really found out what I missed. Steven was a total stranger when we met but he showed me more compassion in an hour than you did in my whole life. Ya know, it's really all right for me to groan a little when I get sick. If I'm hurt bad enough, it's ok to pass out." Ranma pointed to the scars on his chest. "I nearly bled to death. Know what the guys I fight with did? They got upset. They nearly cried over me. Men who've fought and bled in combat on three continents, good men, worried over me. Not like you, all you ever did was tell me to shut up, be a man, you were more concerned about wether I could work the next day, not if I was really sick or hurt. I hate you. I never want to see you again. Don't ask for me anymore, 'cause I won't come."  
  
Ranma grabbed his clothes and turned to leave but Genma tried to stop him.  
  
"Don't go. If you go, they won't consider my parol for another five years. I need to get out of here.  
You always were a selfish boy. Consider me for a change."  
  
Ranma jerked his arm out of Genma's grip; put on his clothes and turned around. Slamming both hands palm out into Genma's chest he put him halfway through the wall.  
  
"Aka Tora Tsuba!!"  
  
Ranma threw the ball of razor-sharp energy blades into the center of Genma's chest. It cut him up and left him in a bleeding huddle on the floor. Ranma grabbed the door and in his anger didn't even notice that not only was it locked but it was an inch thick sheet of reinforced steel. He tossed the crumpled remains at Genma and stalked into the hall, heading for the nearest exit. {Damnit, I swore I wasn't gonna lose my temper.}  
  
"Hey, stop where you are."  
  
"I don't think so!" Ranma wasn't in the mood to argue with some hack guard.  
  
"Leave it. Ranma, I need you to stay just a minute. We need to talk" The Warden didn't want Ranma to leave until he was calmer. Steven had warned him that an upset Ranma could be as destructive as an earthquake, so he just wanted to keep Ranma long enough for him to cool off.  
  
"Don't want to talk Want out of here." Then something Genma had said hit him. "Wait. What did he say about Parole? I thought he wasn't eligible for parole for at least twenty years. Or was it never."  
Ranma scowled at the Warden like he was going to bite.  
  
"Well, there is some disagreement about that. Some of the more liberal elements don't see any reason to keep anyone in prison for life, others think slavers of any sort should spend life. After all isn't that what they condemn their victims to . . . " The Warden trailed off he remembered Ranma had been one of those victims.  
  
"A-hem . . . anyway he's not eligible for parole for twenty years, even if they push that law through, so don't worry about him bothering you. I should give you a lecture about striking Genma, after all he can't really fight back. The equipment that prevents him from leaving prevents him from using his chi attacks, but he laid hands on you first, so I'm not going to say anything. Have you cooled off? I'll let you leave as soon as I'm sure you're not going to wreck the vicinity." The Warden waited patiently while Ranma rubbed the back of his head, stretching out tense muscles  
  
"I'm ok. Sorry about the door. I'll fix it if ya want." Ranma started back toward the room just in time to hear his Pop telling a guard; "He always was an ungrateful brat. I sacrificed myself so he could be the best martial artist in the world and what thanks do I get? He waits until I can't defend myself and he attacks me for no reason. What did I do to deserve this fate?" Ranma was about ready to start another fight when the guard just told Genma to shut up.  
  
"If you was my Dad, I'd cut your throat. It makes me sick. You sold him and then try to justify your stupidity by saying you were going to steal him back? What the hell is that? That's why we keep you sequestered, even the most hardened criminals here want a piece of you and I wish we could give it to them. You'd be better off to keep your mouth shut."  
  
Ranma turned to the Warden. "Sekis . . . What's that? Who want's a piece of him?"  
  
The warden explained sequestered to Ranma and ended up telling him that every con in the prison with a child or little brother wanted to cut Genma into fish bait.  
  
Ranma made it to the gate without further incident, reclaimed his knife and left. He got on his bike and headed back to the Compound.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma was enjoying his ride back; the Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 Classic was a big bike. Its 1552cc motor was responsive and quick, it banged through the gears, it's V-twin four stroke pouring out the power like a power plant twice its size. It sucked asphalt under its large tires and threw itself into curves like they were nothing. Ranma used his strength to bull the bike around curves at speeds it shouldn't have held to  
  
He tried to run away from his pain but he couldn't run away from himself. He knew he shouldn't be pushing the bike and himself so hard but as long as the Vulcan could hold up, he was going to push the edge of its traction and red line  
  
The trouble he was inviting didn't come from the Vulcan but from a dark indiscriminate van which cut him off from a side road. He dropped a gear and threw the bike into a power skid that fish tailed the bike past the bumper of the van and swore at the driver flashing the man a well understood one finger salute. Instead of trying to stop or back up the van started after him  
  
{What the hell? This guy ain't backin' off.}  
  
Ranma pushed the big bike harder than ever, he wasn't going to stay around and try to fight these people if he could get out of it. He wasn't about to kill someone unless he was forced to. What he wanted was to get his pursuers where he could get his hands on one. He had a lot of questions and he wanted answers. He wasn't going to get them this time.  
  
As Ranma forced the bike to stay on a curve by racking down a gear then powering around the sharp curve, he finally lost traction, the 300mm dual disc front brake held but the single rear brake let loose.  
The brake pucks had over heated and failed. He lost it and headed for the ditch; but his strength and martial arts training saved him, he managed to wrestle the bike into submission again. But the van following him didn't make it, the curve which had almost defeated Ranma got the van. They had been too busy watching Ranma almost wreck so they did, skidding into the ditch and rolling over.  
  
Ranma got the Vulcan stopped and dismounted; he ran to the van but the four men in it were all dead.  
Two obviously killed in the wreck the other two had just died. He couldn't see any reason.  
  
Ranma got on his cell phone and called Cen Ops. A sweeper team showed up less than half an hour later, using the signal from his watch to zero in on his location. "Get every thing out of their pockets and search the van. Steven will want to see everything." The Head of the sweeper team looked at Ranma.  
"My orders are to bring you back to the Compound. I don't need trouble with you. Come easy or come hard. Steven said to tell you that he'll have your ass if you don't cooperate. I've brought two of my best enforcers, so don't get cocky."  
  
Ranma just eyed the man and wondered if there was some entity somewhere who had it in for him. One of the enforces looked at him and just shrugged. "If you want him wrestled, you do it. I'm not payed enough to piss off a George." Turning to Ranma he said, "I recognize you. We're not gonna try anything with you, but if I was you, I'd come with me. We'll get you back to the Compound bike and all. I think it'd be easier than tryin' to ram that bike through the mountains after dark. Sun's going down fast."  
  
Ranma decided to go with the sweepers he was tired and disgusted the brakes on the bike went trustworthy after being over heated Great ending to a great day.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma walked into the common room and flopped down on the couch. He'd taken a shower and felt better but it was almost 8pm and he was still hyped. The run through the mountains and a short talk with Steven had left him on edge.  
  
He wished Sunny hadn't gone to the movies with Leela. He couldn't find anyone. Kuno was teaching a late swordsmanship class and Ryouga, Shuba, and Danny were no where to be found. He couldn't even find any of his secondary team, the Conroy-gumi had all gone into Nerima.  
  
Ranma turned on the TV and didn't watch a game show. He started to nod off but was suddenly jerked awake by giggles coming from the hall.  
  
"Ryouga, you're awful. I know it was a stupid movie but . . . What? Don't shush me."  
  
But Ryouga shushed again saying, "Hush. I want to hear this, Leela. Something about a chase in the mountains. Let's go see if we can't get it on the radio stations TV affiliate."  
  
Ryouga, Sunny and Leela hurried in and Ryu grabbed the remote. He found the channel and climbed over the back of the couch. Sunny and Leela took up positions on either side of the two boys.  
  
"As you can see, we were lucky enough to get exclusive footage of a road rage incident in the mountains outside of Nerima. Our newest Helicopter was on its maiden flight and happened to see this outrageous attack by a van on a motorcycle. Our pilot and news person were horrified to see this attack and their quick thinking and experience gave us this footage of part of the crime. If anyone knows anything about this, we are asking that you please contact Nerima P.D. Is the biker safe? Who is he or she? Why did the van chase this person? These questions and others must be answered."  
  
The Television announcer continued to babble but the footage was defiantly Ranma running ahead of a large van. They entered a tunnel and the chopper lost them. But the station started the three minute segment again with more comment by the announcer.  
  
"Damnit! Steven's gonna have my hide."  
  
Just then Ranma's phone started to ring.  
"Moshi-Moshi!. . . No! I'm fine . . . back at the dorm. Yeah, you guys stay there. Have fun. I'm stayin' right here." Ranma hung up only to have the thing ring again. "Moshi-moshi. . . . Steven. Look,  
I'm really sorry. I had no idea I was bein' filmed. I was . . . Oh, Ok"  
  
Ranma's phone rang for the third time "Damnit Mo . . . what? No I'm Ok. Come back and I'll tell you all at once. Twenty minutes?"  
  
Sunny had been holding in and the verbal dam finally burst "Saotome Ranma, what the devil have you been doing you could have been killed what did that fool think he was doing why did he chase you I want you to know that I don't like it when you do stuff like that I . . . " Sunny took a deep breath and stopped talking all on her own. She wrapped her arms around Ranma and burst into tears.  
  
Ranma yelped and leaned back away from Sunny. He was waiting for her to hit him, but all she did was hug him tighter and cry harder.  
  
"Ranma, I hate it when you pull back like that. I thought you liked me just a little Why won't you let me hug you."  
  
Sunny started to pull away wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.  
  
Ranma tentatively put his arms around her. When she showed no sighs of smacking him, he awkwardly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped at her face. "Don't cry Sunny. I'm fine. I don't know what those guys wanted but Steven said he'll call when he knows something. Probably not till tomorrow."  
  
"Who called?" Leela was leaning on Ryouga's chest looking a little worried.  
  
"The first call was from Conroy. He wanted to know if I wanted my team to come back and cover me.  
The third was from Shuba, he's with Kuno and Danny, they're on their way back. I'll tell everyone what happened when they get here Ok?"  
  
Ranma found that he enjoyed having Sunny hug him. He moved carefully until she was leaning against his shoulder; her soft sniffling made him feel like a jerk.  
  
Ten silent minutes later they'd seen the footage half a dozen times and listened to the same commentary.  
  
"OK, spill. What the hell is going on?" Shuba didn't even take time to get seated. He pelted Ranma with questions as he Danny and Kuno got settled.  
  
Ranma told his story ending with; "Two of the guys died from the wreck, but the other two didn't have enough injuries to kill them. They just died. Steven said he'd have answers by tomorrow. He said I should just relax until then. How can I relax? Someone tried t' kill me or at least take me prisoner. I don't like it"  
  
Shuba rubbed the back of his neck and snapped " I'm going to Cen Ops" He jumped up and left".  
  
Danny eyed Kuno. "I don't know about you but I'm gonna have a look around outside. You comin'?"  
  
"Yes, I'm coming. I don't think there's any chance of someone being out there, but you never know."  
Ranma started to get up and follow them, but Sunny wrapped herself around him and pulled him back onto the couch.  
  
"NO! Ranma, you look like hell. You're exhausted. You rest and let the rest of the manly men take over. Ryouga are you staying here?"  
  
Ryouga looked at Ranma and said; "Yeah, I'll stay here, even if it's just to keep Ran-chan from wearing himself out even more. Ranma, lie down before you fall down. For ...Damnit! No!"  
  
Ranma had headed for the door but Ryouga stopped him and picking him up, dumped him on the couch again. Ranma started to wrestle with him and they wound up wrestling around until they fell onto the floor. Finally Ranma gave up, he was more tired than he'd thought so, panting and laughing, he exclaimed, "Ok Ryu-kun. I give. I'll be a good boy and stay here. I'm pooped."  
  
Leela demanded that they stop fooling around as her favorite show was on and she wanted to see it without "You guys shaking the couch like an earthquake." So Ryouga flopped down on one end of the love seat and pulled Leela onto it next to him.  
  
Sunny got Ranma to lie down on the big couch and she sat down at his feet. They watched the show for a while but soon began to fall asleep.  
  
Leela hated this show, as it was boring, but had chosen it just because of that. She'd hoped that it would make Ranma fall asleep. It was working until Ranma straightened his leg out too much and kicked Sunny in the thigh.  
  
"Ow! Hey Ran-chan. Watch it." Sunny rubbed her leg and poked Ranma's foot.  
  
"Shit! Sunny, I"m so sorry, are you all right. I'll sit up." Ranma reached out to rub her leg like he would have with one of the guys. He jerked back like he'd been burned, looking at Sunny with fear in his eyes.  
  
"Sorry, Sorry. Don't be mad."  
  
Ryouga laughed lazily, half asleep himself.  
  
"Ranma you pervert."  
  
Ranma curled up on the couch with his arms over his head, like he was afraid someone would hurt him.  
  
"I'm sorry. I'm not a pervert, I just . . . "  
  
Sunny, Ryouga and Leela all looked at Ranma then gathered around him.  
  
"Hey, I didn't mean it! Damnit, Akane used to call him a pervert if he even touched her. Any accidental touch of any kind got him hammered into the dirt. Ranma come out. Sunny's not going to be mad.Iit was an accident. Here, look. "  
  
Ryouga made all the connections and didn't like where they led.  
  
Ranma was awkward around girls, almost as awkward as he'd been until Leela had taught him how to act around her. He found that he enjoyed her company now that he didn't feel like an idiot every time she looked at him.  
  
Now he knew that Akane had done Ranma a great deal of damage and he wasn't sure how to start to fix it but getting him to see that Sunny wasn't going to flatten him every time he accidentally got too personal was a good start.  
  
"Here. Sunny, you sit here and Ranma, you sit right by her. Just sit there. She's not going to be mad,  
are ya?"  
  
Sunny muttered something about Akane and 'violent b witch . . . crazy' then sat where Ryouga pointed. Ranma tentatively sat next to her, as far away as he could get without falling off the couch.  
Ryouga moved Sunny to the end of the couch which had an arm and practically dragged Ranma to sit next to her with only a few inches between them.  
  
"Just sit there. She's not going to bite you. Watch the show."  
  
Ranma yawned, it had been a long day and he was getting sleepy. Sunny was nodding too. Soon they were both asleep, leaning against each other. Ryouga smirked and poked Leela.  
  
"Bed for us Sweetie. Just let them stay there. It'll be good for both of them."  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Ranma woke up and realized he had his head on something that, while it was soft, wasn't his pillow.  
  
"Yaaahhhhh!"  
  
Ranma jumped off Sunny and fell onto the floor. He scuttled crabwise backwards until he hit the coffee table then scooted it into the love seat. Jammed between the coffee table and couch he cringed waiting for Sunny to smash him into the ceiling. He'd awakened with his head nestled against her breast bone,  
squarely between her breasts.  
  
Sunny sat up and looked at Ranma with the most puzzled expression on her face "Ranma what is wrong with you? I was sleeping so good and I don't want to get up yet. Come back.  
I'm cold."  
  
"Sorry, Sorry, Im' so sorry. Sunny, don't be mad! I didn't mean anything! I really didn't!"  
  
Ranma blinked then cringed again. Sunny had gotten up. She looked a cross between mad and disgusted. His heart nearly broke.  
  
"Saotome Ranma, you get back on that couch right now!"  
  
Ranma got up and lay down on the couch on his stomach. She obviously didn't want to have to bend down to clobber him. He put his hands over the back of his head and waited.  
  
"Ahem! On your back please." Sunny twirled her finger to indicate what she wanted.  
  
{Oh. She wants to punch me in the stomach. I might as well get it over with}  
  
Ranma rolled over. Sunny pushed and poked at him until she had him in the position she wanted. On his back with his hands over his head, one leg against the back of the couch, the other lying on the seat.  
  
"Move your feet. I don't fancy having your heel in my gut." Sunny kneeled between Ranma's legs and then gently lay down on him, cuddling up on his chest. She fidgeted a bit and fished around underneath him.  
  
"Put your arms down now."  
  
"But . . . Sunny, there's no place for me to put them except on you."  
  
"Yeah, I know Stooopid. I'm cold. Hold me."  
  
She was on his chest, cuddled against him with her hands clasped under her chin, Ranma's pigtail in her hand. It took her about thirty seconds to fall back asleep murmuring "Ranma no Baka. Koishii."  
  
Ranma wrapped his arms around Sunny wondering if he was lucky or if she was going to really get him when she woke up. He decided to enjoy holding her while he had a chance and worry about getting killed later. {I could learn to like this . . . A lot}  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
N. Renolds, Naina Kuonji Nabiki is Information Queen of Nerima she knows what Genma had for breakfast. Couldn't care less for him, all For Ranma. 


	25. Chapter 26

1

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. Rumiko Takasashi does.

Chapter 26

Ranma blinked; he was facing Sunny, who was watching him from one eye. He tried to get off the couch but Sunny wouldn't let him, she just pulled his pigtail gently, keeping him where he was.

"I don't hurt the people I love. If someone is hitting you, they are your enemy. Isn't that so?" Sunny tugged his pigtail again.

"Huh? Yeah? I guess so. Except if you're sparin' I guess that's true." Ranma couldn't quite get the drift of what Sunny was trying to tell him. He tried to get up again and again she wouldn't let him.

"Open your mouth just a little." Ranma just barely opened his mouth. Sunny tipped her head and gently pressed her lips to his. Her tongue pushed against his lips and slipped into his mouth exploring it, causing him to feel like he'd done something wonderful just by letting her.

"Mmmmm! Should we be doing this, Koi?" Ranma was doubtful, what if this was wrong somehow. He didn't want to get Sunny in trouble; he didn't care about himself, he'd gladly get into any kind of trouble there was. He was enjoying himself way too much.

"No. We really shouldn't. If Mom finds out we're necking first thing in the morning she'll have fits. But it's nice just the same." Sunny reluctantly sat up and started sorting herself out. "I'm hungry. Let's get cleaned up and find food. Meet you in the Mess?. . . Koibito? You know you keep calling me Koi? It's nice."

Ranma watched Sunny leave. {I'm callin' her what?}

Ranma met her and the rest of his friends in the mess. They filed through the line and sat down at 'their' table. Everybody in the mess either smiled at them or at the least nodded. It was companionable and comfortable. Ranma even sat with his back to the room.

"Ranma. Don't clobber me, it's Rio"

"Yeah, I heard ya commin' up. What'd ya want?" Ranma turned to grin at Rio scooting his chair over so Rio could grab a chair from the nearest table and sit next to him.

"We saw that chase on TV at the bar. What's up? The guys all nearly had fits. We'd 've come back if ya needed but ya said not so we didn't. Spill before we bust"

Rio had seen Ranma and the others first so he was getting in his questions before anyone else.

"Give Ranma a break. We don't know anything yet. Steven's going to fill us in when he knows something." Shuba got up giving Rio a level look. "My name's Shuba. I'm the coordinator for this team. Rio; isn't it?" Shuba stuck out his hand and Rio took it.

"Glad t' meet ya. If ya need us, ya know where we are, Ranma. I'll go fill the guys in. Sorry if I bothered ya." Rio started to leave but Ranma clasped his arm and squeezed it gently.

"Thanks Rio. You guys are never a bother, shut up that shit or I'll smack ya. We need ya we know where t' find ya."

Ranma felt funny. It was so different to have people he knew he could depend on.

After eating everyone had something they needed to do and scattered.

Ranma did his training, realizing that this was the first time in a long time that he'd eaten breakfast before training. It was nice to eat with his friends and he vowed to do it more often.

He decided he was just going to wander around the complex. He should be studying for the long delayed Calculus test but he didn't feel like scrambling his brains today. He opted for mindless socializing instead.

As he wandered around he saw a bunch of men standing around a blanket spread out on the ground. On the blanket a man was struggling as the bystanders cheered him on. He was tied up with climbing rope.

"Ok?! I give. What the hell is going on?" Ranma poked the man standing next to him. He explained that the man standing over the 'prisoner' was a rope expert and would bet anyone a hundred dollars American that he could tie them up and they couldn't escape.

Panting the bound man said "Ok! Ok! I give. Buck, I can't get lose. Untie me. I've got your money in my pocket."

Buck untied the man, collected his money and coiled his rope. "Anyone else? Or have all you losers learned your lesson?" Buck laughed but without malice. He made quite a nice income from this and didn't want to alienate anyone besides he was really a nice guy.

Ranma smirked, a hundred dollars American was a nice hunk of change especially for him. He decided he'd better ask some questions first.

"Excuse me. Can I ask some questions?" At Buck's nod he went on; "All I have t' do is get loose? Any way I can. Right? Unn, what if I can't . . . take it. I've got some issues but I'd really like t' try. I don't have a hundred dollars on me but I can get it. If you'll trust me that is."

Everybody in the group recognized Ranma, not by name but as one of the 'special' group, so Buck just told Ranma he'd trust him for the money and if he started to get the creeps he'd cut him loose.

"It happens sometimes. Just sneaks up on a guy. I got it covered don't worry, all you have to do is tell me you're freakin' and it's all over." Buck smiled at Ranma, he didn't have the heart to tell the kid that he was an expert with knots and it was probably hopeless

Ranma cooperated with Buck as he wrapped the rope twice around his wrists then started to wrap it around his waist. One of the spectators yelled that it wasn't fair to others to take it easy on the 'kid'.

Buck mumbled something about 'jealous old farts' and went back to tying Ranma, he doubled the wraps around his wrists and then wrapped the rope in between his wrists several times.

"Not pinchin' ya is it?" Buck didn't want to hurt anyone. It was about the skill with knots rather than how bad he could make them hurt.

Ranma shook his head, "Na, I'm fine. Done yet? Oh, by the way the bet was I get free right?"

Buck nodded and helped Ranma kneel down so he could hogtie him.

Buck tied his ankles together and tied Ranmas hands to his ankles wrapping the rope several times between his ankles and wrists.

Ranma felt himself stiffening but forced himself to relax. These people weren't going to hurt him, he knew that and was taking this opportunity to prove it to himself.

"What's going on here who are you what are you doing to Ranma don't you dare hurt him I'll . . . well I don't know what I'll do . . . " Sunny swatted at Buck, who just caught her hands and held them.

"Oh, man. I'm in trouble now. She'll give me fits for a week." Ranma eyed Sunny, she was looking around already calmer, as Buck explained what they were doing.

"Oh! I see. I'm sorry I yelled at you as long as you aren't hurting him that's ok." Sunny turned a speculative eye on Ranma. He started to squirm. "Don't you move!"

Sunny grabbed Ranma by the ears so he couldn't pull away; startled he just gapped at her as she bent down a little and kissed him {She keeps kissn' me.}She kissed him like he was her hope of heaven and he kissed her right back.

Sunny moaned, "Oh, my Gosh. I'm such a pervert . . . but it sure is nice."

A light came on in Ranmas head, he was tied up so he couldn't be doing anything wrong, Sunny even admitted she was the pervert. She had started this but he was going to finish it.

All hesitation gone he stood up; ropes snapped with pops like fire crackers; he picked Sunny up and held her in his arms.

They had completely forgotten about all the men standing around watching, their hooting and whistling brought Ranma back to his senses. He raised his head and grinned at the men; "Aw, shut up. Can't a guy kiss his girl without you animals goin' nuts?" he whispered "Do ya have to be a pervert to like kissin' this much?" but his big grin told Sunny the question was rhetorical.

"Uunn, Hey. How'd you do that? . . . Hey! Kid! I'm talking to ya!" Ranma turned to look blankly at Buck, he was still holding Sunny who showed no signs of objection. In fact she happily put her head on Ranmas shoulder.

Buck held out Ranmas hundred dollars but held it so Ranma couldn't take it.

At his questioning look Buck said "Could ya put the girl down and answer a few questions?"

Ranma, who was enjoying holding Sunny, sighed. This was the first time he'd done anything like this outside of dance class or just fooling around dancing outside of class.

"Darn kill joy!"

Sunny gave Buck a dirty look as Ranma dipped his shoulder and loosened his grip, letting her feet touch the ground. But she happily snuggled against his side as he firmly pulled her against him with the other arm.

"Ask!"

"How'd ya do that? That was a climbing rope made to hold a 300 lb. load. I wrapped ya up good, too." Buck had seen it, he was holding the broken pieces of rope in his hand, but he didn't know how.

"Oh well he's a George you know I wish they'd put pictures in the orientation pack all the guys are nice Ranma's the nicest but they are really strong and Ranma you didn't cheat the man did you if you did you ought to be ashamed You Grunts don't have a chance against Ranma, Ryouga or Kuno they can walk all over great big daemons so normal men like you don't have a chance of course if you go up against Ranma you're double doomed because he's the best even better than Steven and . . . "

Ranma squeezed Sunny "Shush! You'll have to take a breath, Koi. Let the man answer. And I didn't cheat, he said get loose not untie. I asked." Ranma turned to Buck. "You did say get loose ya know."

Buck put the money in Ranma's hand. "Yeah, I did. I'll have to be more specific in the future. But it was worth a hundred dollars to see that plus the kiss was somethin' to see too."

Sunny hid her head in Ranma's shoulder blushing furiously. Ranma patted her and grinned.

"Thanks Buck. Come on Sunny, lets go back to the dorm."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the dorm the two looked for the rest of the team. They found Kuno lounging in the commons watching tv.

"Hey, Kuno, where's everyone?"

Ranma squatted next to the table flipping through the magazines there. Sunny flopped down on the couch next to Kuno, poking him till he moved over.

Kuno frowned for a minute," I'm not sure. I saw Shuba and Danny go into Cen. Ops a while ago. Why?"

Ranma felt a cold chill crawl up his back. Where was Ryouga?

"Fuck! Where the hell's Ryu, I saw Leela go in there and she was alone. She's been sticking to him like glue. Damnit! If he's gone and gotten lost again . . ."

A voice from the door relieved their fears.

"I'm not lost." He turned to the man with him; telling him thanks. "Steven has set it up so I can get someone to escort me until they can get the tracers made. Leela had some kind of meeting at Cen. Ops so she handed me off to that guy. I've been with my secondary team. They needed to see me. Everyone seems to want to keep their eye, even their hands on me . . . Sunny I'm not gonna disappear"

Sunny had grabbed onto Ryouga, leading him to a chair like he couldn't get there by himself. Ranma snickered, he remembered a time when Ryu had gotten lost going to the bathroom.

"Yeah, laugh asshole." Ryouga said without much heat. "It's a family curse, see how you like it. I might as well be blind"

All of a sudden Ranma felt bad, he flushed and tried to find something to say that didn't sound like pity or sarcasm.

Sunny saved them by bursting into speech, asking where Leela, Danny, and Shuba were. When the boys just shrugged, she rambled on for a while speculating on what they could be doing at Cen Ops at this time of day, finishing up with. "I can't think of any reason for . . . Oh, I wonder if he's sending them to steal something. I heard one of the dispatchers telling stories at lunch the other day. There_ is_ a collector in Nerima You know, one of those idiot, weak magicians who can't use items but has the money or clout to get them and just lets them sit around in cases and stuff. It's supposedly the one who attacked you so they are stepping up surveillance on him and shutting him down by taking his stuff of course we'll have to pay him but . . . "

The stream of invective that trailed behind Ranma made Kuno blush, Ryouga blink and Sunny squeal.

The door to the Cen Ops meeting room slammed back against the wall so hard that it cracked. Steven jumped up into a defensive stance and everyone else in the room cringed. Ranma strode into the room looking so feral that he was almost unrecognizable.

"What the hell do you mean by planning something for members of MY team without including me. You're planning to send them off into danger without competent back, up ain't cha . . . Well?"

One of the other men at the table smarted off before Steven could say anything.

"Here, take a pill. What do you mean by barging in here that way?"

Leela grabbed Ranma before he could go across the table after him and Danny added his pleas to hers.

"Ranma, calm down. This is a planning meeting. We don't know exactly what we're gonna do yet. Why don't ya just sit in? Here, have some water and sit here."

Ranma took the heavy glass, sipped, and sat down, still holding the glass. He listened as the man who had smarted off outlined the plan. He trusted Steven and Shuba but this man was something else entirely. He was some kind of big shot from Japanese Central Intelligence.

"We insert the girl through the sky light and she retrieves the objective. She must be sure not to trigger the security systems. She's expendable in relation to . . . "

Steven watched as Ranma's sanity packed its bags and left.

"You are not, by God, calling Leela expendable." Ranma gripped the glass so hard it broke, cutting the palm of his hand. Ranma payed no attention to the pain other than to pick the shard of glass out of his hand and drop it on the table.

"No one here is expendable. You can forget that."

Ranma clenched his hands into fists. He was so mad he vibrated. He stuck his fist into the operatives face, dripping blood on the table.

"What the hell do you think you're doin' talkin' like that. No one sends my people into something . . . "

"Shut up. I am mission control for this operation. My name is Mr. Downs. If you will quit shouting and listen, I will explain how necessary this mission is." Mr. Downs glared at Ranma, not knowing just how close he was to getting seriously hurt.

Ranma took a deep breath and tried to calm down, maybe he'd misunderstood something the man had said.

"Now Mr. Ranma . . ."

"Saotome, it's Saotome-san. Not Ranma. Damnit!" Ranma wasn't going to cut this man any slack at all.

Steven hid a small smile behind his hand. He'd been thinking about telling the man to take a hike when Ranma had showed up; he didn't like the JCI operative's attitude either. As far as he was concerned the only one expendable here was Mr. Downs.

"Very well. The girl is expendable, we can' let witches know that any government entity is interested in magical objects. If we can't get these objects there could be very bad repercussions. If the witch learns how to use some of them she could open doors we'd rather keep shut. As for Leela and Danny, if they get caught, Danny can deny everything, he'll be outside. Leela? She'll just go to jail. Her cover is a common cat burglar."

Downs gave Ranma a snide look. "I'm sure you understand now."

Ranma didn't. He went across the table intent on wiping the smirk off his face. Steven grabbed him and they wrestled around while everyone else headed for the nearest door, two people like Ranma and Steven fighting wasn't anything they wanted to be near. Ranma didn't want to hurt Steven and Steven didn't want to hurt Ranma so the fight wasn't as bad as it might have been. But the final result was that Security was called and they had to dart Ranma to keep him from killing that man or stomping Steven.

As they carried Ranma from the room Steven started lecturing Downs.

"You have no idea how close you came to getting killed, that kid is one of the most powerful and skilled martial artists living. The only reason I got him down at all is because he didn't want to hurt me. That may be out the window now. If you screw this up and something happens, I'm not responsible for what he does to you. I'm gonna have to duck and cover myself. He may never trust me again."

Steven didn't like the arrangement at all but his superiors had asked for this as a favor and he owed them a lot. He'd asked Danny, Leela and Shuba to do this. He wouldn't command them. They could make up their own minds about this one. He just hoped Downs was better at his job than he seemed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma woke abruptly. His mouth felt like he'd eaten dirt and his head was splitting, he started to put his hand to his head, when he moved his arm, he felt the weight on his wrist. They'd chained him!

"Son of a Bitch! I'm gonna get Steven for this. I know what he's up to." Ranma examined the chains on his wrists and ankles. They were the same ones he' had made for his work with the Neko-ken. Ranma smiled slightly, he'd wait and see want happened.

If Steven knew what he was doing, and Ranma hoped he did, He'd spend a few uncomfortable hours. If Steven was wrong, there was going to be hell to pay, but Ranma would wait. No sense in showing all his cards just yet.

"He's awake." The woman was a motherly looking 40 something and felt bad. She thought it was cruel to chain the boy at all, much less with chains that could hold an elephant.

"I'm sorry about this. Steven says it is necessary to keep some big shot from causing us trouble. I don't know. And I know it sounds like an excuse, but I am only doing my job"

The lady looked sad and Ranma reconsidered what he was going to say, no sense in taking his mad out on her, no matter what she did. He knew she was probably working with only half truths or out right lies. Steven could be a real bastard when he needed to be.

"What did Steven say?"

"He said you attacked a high-ranking official from Japanese Central Intelligence. It's not a good thing to do. They take their authority directly from the Emperor himself so it is treason to interfere with them. He also said that you are very strong, that is why you're chained. "She gave the chain an angry look. "I'm sorry. I know they have to be uncomfortable. If you need anything, ask."

"I'd like a drink. And a blanket, maybe a zafu, if you've got one. "At the woman's odd look he explained. "You know, one of those little meditation pillows? Ya sit on it."

Ranma walked to the end of the chains. They had actually made a line on the floor with gaffers tape. He slowly leaned into the chains and pulled until they hummed he didn't jerk on them only applied a slow steady pressure.

"Stop that right now. If you don't, we'll have to dart you again. Orders from Mr. Downs. Don't make us." The guard looked nervous as well he might. Ranma hadn't realized his reputation was so good, or was it bad. He realized everyone in the room was looking scared.

"Don't worry. I'm gonna be a good boy. For now. "Ranma smiled his sweetest, most innocent smile. It made him look like an angel. The guard looked even more nervous.

Ranma wandered around a little waiting for his drink and zafu. He also tested the limits of the chains. He couldn't reach anything and the line was right on the money.

The woman came back with his drink and a zafu. She put the zafu down and placed the drink on top, using a piece of dowel rod, she pushed them over the 'safe' line.

"Thanks. What's your name? I can't keep thinking of you as the nice lady." Ranma tried his smile out on the woman and watched as her face crumpled into tears. "Hey! Don't cry. I . . . geeze!" Ranma didn't know what to do. He wanted to comfort the lady but he couldn't reach her. "Please stop cryin' I hate to see a lady cry."

"Hell! My name's Jessup, Connie Jessup. Call me Connie, please. Sorry about the water works, I just hate seeing you like that." Connie swiped at her eyes with the back of one hand. "Your friends are all having fits Steven said they could see you if you promised not to cause any trouble. Would you like that?"

When Ranma reached for the drink the guards all twitched, then relaxed when he showed no signs of grabbing for Connie or doing anything else foolish.

Ranma took his drink and zafu and retreated to the wall behind him. He sat on the zafu with his back to the wall and leaned back against it. He tucked his left foot against the zafu and put his right foot flat on the floor. Resting his right elbow on his knee, he tucked his left arm around his waist and let the soda dangle from his right hand. He was the perfect picture of abject misery.

The chains rattled as he shifted restlessly, trying to find a comfortable position, he noticed that most of the people in the room flinched every time they rattled.

Fifteen minutes later the guards had another scare. Ryouga and Kuno entered the room and immediately started raising hell. After a few minutes of shouting, Ryouga slammed out of the room without saying a word to Ranma. Ranma ordered Kuno after him.

"Man, go after him. He'll do something just as stupid as I did and wind up in the same mess. I need you two free so you can tell me what is going on. Hurry." Ranma didn't want either Ryouga or Kuno to get themselves in trouble, he didn't really need them to report to him, he would know what was going on soon enough. Steven wasn't stupid enough to keep real trouble from him.

Sunny was the next to come in some thirty minutes later. Ranma could hear her at the door, pleading with the guards to let her see him. They weren't cooperating, then he heard the chilling sound of a fist smacking into someone. He froze just long enough to hear Sunny exclaim, "I'm sorry." Then she came running into his open arms.

"Ranma, what have they done to you I hit that man he wouldn't let me come in to see you. Why are you chained up I'm gonna kill someone I swear. If they've hurt you let me see. . . mmmmmmmm" Ranma knew Sunny by now. The only way to get her to be quiet when she got wound up was to put something over her mouth. His lips worked nicely.

"Ok. I'll wind down. They darted you. Kuno told me. Where?" Ranma showed her the spot. Sunny healed it almost without thinking. "There! Ranma why are you still. . . mmmmmm" Ranma kissed her again. Her voice, while well modulated, carried like mad. She pulled away and looked at him. His expression begged her not to go on.

"Ok Ranma." Sunny cuddled up to him, keeping her voice to a whisper. "I don't know what you have up your sleeve but I won't queer your pitch." At Ranmas questioning look, she smiled "One of the girls in my secondary is carny. Nice, but count your fingers after you shake her hand. It means I won't give anything away." Ranma kissed the top of her head and hugged her gently.

"Take your hands off her. Young lady, come here."

The door guards had finally gotten themselves together and were coming to the 'rescue'. Ranma looked down the barrels of two .38 police specials. Snub nosed, ugly and pretty much useless against him, but they were pointed directly at Sunny's back. He just turned around, presenting the men with his back, shielding Sunny with his body.

"Put up your guns! Damn you! You shoot me and you'll hit Sunny. Put them up, I said." Ranma was ready to take them out but Connie saved the situation, stepping between the guards and Ranma she talked the guards into pointing their guns away while she got Sunny out of the line of fire.

After making Ranma kneel on the floor with his hands behind his head the guards permitted Sunny to stay to talk to Ranma.

"Tell me what's going on. Where's Ryouga and Kuno, have you heard anything about Leela and Danny? Steven hasn't sent me any news yet." Ranma was out of the loop and he knew it, but Sunny could find out anything she wanted, she just put on her prettiest smile and people told her everything.

"Ok, bad news first. I had to sedate Ryouga he went berserk. Kuno tried to take him for a run in the hills to calm down, but it didn't work. Kuno's ok, so don't frown like that. He's with Ryouga incase the sedation wears off too soon. They're sending Leela and Danny to get the objective, stupid men, all that magic stuff from the hotel. That's all I know and Steven's really upset. That man from JCI is a real prick I don't trust him as far as I could throw this building." Sunny started to go to Ranma but one of the guards grabbed her by the arm. That was nearly Ranma's undoing. He twitched chains rattling.

"Don't touch her. Get your hand off."

"Stay away from him. He could hurt you. He's too angry to be safe" The guard hadn't seen anything like this in his life and he wasn't taking any chances with this kid. He looked like he'd like to fight the world.

Sunny stomped her foot. "Oh poo! Ranma wont hurt me. I just want to hug him good by." Sunny turned tear filled, shimmering eyes on the guard, who immediately melted under the pressure of a teary Sunny.

"Ok, I know I shouldn't but go ahead. Kid, if you so much as twitch wrong, I'm gonna shoot you. You hurt her in anyway . . . " The man knew he shouldn't let her go any where near Ranma but he couldn't ignore her plea.

Ranma just looked at Sunny. "I ever hurt her and I'll shoot myself. I won't move."

Ranma stayed right where he was, kneeling on the floor with his hands behind his head, waiting for Sunny to come to him. She walked to him and put her arms around his shoulders. He was surprised to see that they were almost the same height, on his knees he was no more than three inches shorter than she was, she was so small.

Ranma tipped his head back and Sunny kissed him, delving deeply into his open mouth. Ranma slid his tongue over hers and demanded more.

"Ok, you two break it up. Kissing is one thing. Frenching in public is another."

Ranma let his forehead rest on Sunny's breast for a second. "I'm gonna kill that prick yet."

Sunny took a deep breath, hugged Ranma one more time and turned to go. On her way out she gave the guards a fierce look.

"Hum! If you harm him in anyway. I'll be back and you won't like it at all. And believe me I won't be talking you to death." Sunny flounced out the door.

Ranma watched her with his heart in his eyes. He stood up with a sharp rattle of chains. "If you ever point a gun at a civilian like that again I'll tear you a new asshole."

"Yeah? You and what army. You're chained."

Ranma looked at the man with cold eyes "I won't always be chained. Don't count on that saving your ass anyway."

Ranma spent the next few hours annoying everyone in the room. He paced, scuffing his feet, chains rattling at every step. He had to kick the chains when he turned, well he actually didn't, but it made a satisfying clunk.

He also sang. He had a nice voice but the other occupants of the room couldn't be reconciled to his choice of material. He sang every bawdy song he knew, and considering who his father was and his upbringing, the songs he knew were not only filthy, but hilariously funny, and long.

But he got bored with that and started singing a drinking song and kicking the wall he was chained to.

Laying on his back with his arms behind his head he sang and drove both feet into the wall in time.

I think(Boom) and I drink (Boom)

and I think (boom)

I'll have( ka boom) another drink (boom)

And another drink (boom)

another drink(boom)

a drink. (boom)

"Damnit, that kid is going to drive me crazy. Every semi-civilized person had to leave the room. Between his chains rattling and the infernal singing . . . can't we dart him. Please." The Captain of the guards was pleading with Steven. Steven wasn't cooperation in the least

"No, you can't dart him again. He's going to be mad enough when he finds out what a mess I've made of this. And I've got no excuse. I'll be down to see him myself. And what the hell is that noise."

Steven was disgusted with himself, he hadn't trusted Downs, but the higher ups had needed him to cooperate with him so he'd put his mistrust aside. Now, he had to tell Ranma that he'd been right. Leela and Danny had been captured by the witch. Downs had decamped, saying only that it was up to Steven to recover his people if he could.

Steven headed for the lab building where he'd sent Ranma. As he got closer, he could hear the booming. {What the hell is going on}. He walked into the lab and nearly dropped in his tracks.

They'd chained Ranma to the wall and from the door it looked like they'd done something to him to force him to stay on the floor. Then Ranma drove both feet into the wall. The blow was floor shaking and he found out what the noise was. Ranma was kicking the wall just hard enough to make a racket without knocking the wall down. And singing.

"Ranma, stop that. I need to talk to you." Steven waited for Ranma to stop singing.

Ranma rolled over and was in Steven's face so fast that the guard thought he'd transported or something. He scrabbled for his gun. Steven just waited.

"What happened? How bad is it? Where do we have to go to get them out? I'm going with!" Ranma wrapped his chains around Steven and pinned him down. "Or are we collecting wounded. If Leela is hurt, I'm gonna hurt you just as bad."

Steven didn't struggle. He knew it wouldn't do any good Ranma was wound tighter than a dollar clock.

"Let him go!" The guard had finally gotten his gun out and aimed. "I'll shoot!" but the guard made the same mistake Steven had. He was across the gaffer tape line within arms reach of Ranma.

"Fuckin' gimme that." Ranma picked the gun out of the mans hand and threw it through the roof. It made a ragged hole about a foot across and disappeared into the sky. "Go away!" Ranma turned his back on the guard who was counting his fingers and thanking his guardian angels that he still had them all.

Ranma pounced on Steven again, moving with a catlike grace that made him shiver. Neko-kun was very close and Steven knew it. He still didn't struggle as Ranma forced him to his knees.

"Let me talk. You can kill me later. Leela and Danny were captured by that witch. She hasn't turned them over to the police and Downs is disavowing the whole thing. The only thing I can think is she is keeping them for some reason. We've got to get in and find them before she sacrifices them or something."

Ranma sniffed Steven, sticking his nose into the hollow between his neck and shoulder. Ranma sniffed again and snarled, he could tell by the smell that Steven wasn't lying.

Ranma called the Neko-kun, his aura changed, Steven could see the faint outline of a gigantic cat enveloping Ranma. {Damnit, he's cat-boy, I hope I can reason with him} Ranma leered at Steven and used one chi claw to cut the bands around his wrists and ankles, he kicked them away and released the aura.

Steven felt his mouth go dry. If Ranma turned on him, he was dead where he stood, not that he didn't deserve it but he wanted to get his people back first.

"Ranma kill me later. We have to get Leela and Danny back first. You have every right to be mad.I really messed this one up" Steven was just pissed, he'd trusted Downs and his superiors and it hurt to have his trust abused

"What happened to you Steven? When did you become a bureaucrat? When did politics take over? We don't need their money or influence. We can manage without it. The Americans and the British will fund us, all we have to do is ask. You . . . want what . . . Influence?"

Steven shook his head. "Beats the hell out of me. I don't know what I was thinking. When I figure it out, I'll tell you. Expediency bites. I trusted where I shouldn't have. Come on. We need to get to Cen Ops. Umm . . . before you kill, me will you tell me something?"

Ranma stopped for a minute, trying to decide how mad he was. Then he turned around and slugged Steven knocking him into the wall and smashing the wall into the parking lot outside. Steven lay on his back for a full minute then sat up shaking his head to clear it. After heaving himself heavily to his feet, he trudged back to Ranma

"Ok. I really deserved that but no more until after!"

"Ask!"

"Excuse me?"

"You said you had questions. Ask."

"I thought those chains would hold you. What just happened?" Steven bit at his lip, he didn't want Ranma to think all he wanted was a way to restrain him, Ranma looked at Steven from the corner of his eye.

"They held me because I let them. I wanted to work on controlling the Neko-ken. I learned to do just that, so now when I am Neko-kun I'm in control completely. I control myself and my attacks. The chains were just barely strong enough to hold me, they kept me from rolling into someone while Ranma-me learned to control Neko-me. Understand? If you think you're ever gonna find something to really restrain me ever again you'd better curse it." Ranma gave Steven one fierce, fulminating look. "Oh. Another thing. If you ever endanger my people again, we're all gone. We don't need you, we're still kids and can start a new life. Don't ever forget that again"

Steven sighed, he'd hoped for this day, just not quite so soon. All the kids needed to understand that they had choices and the freedom to make them.

"Ranma, damnit, I hated doing that but . . . I won't let you get charged with treason and disrespecting the Emperor. So now what."

While they had been talking they had clambered back into the lab. Guards tried to stop Ranma from following Steven through the room. His glare could have taken the paint off a car. One guard actually worked up the nerve to touch Ranma

"Get your hand off me before I take it off you." Ranma's low cold voice dripped venom. Ranma raised his eyes from the hand on his arm to the eyes of the man holding him. The man started shaking and pissed himself standing stock still frozen in place.

Ranma followed Steven to Cen Ops. Shuba was no where to be seen, instead there was a man that Ranma had never seen sitting behind a control desk. He was frowning at a display and tapping his fingers on his chin.

"Steven, you've really screwed this one up. I can't find those kids, all I have is a carrier signal and it's only strong enough to show me their general location. It'll be dawn soon."

Ranma looked around and decided, "Where's Shuba? I want to talk to him. After that I'm going to eat, then get some sleep. When I wake up, I want a report and then I'll plan my mission myself. I'm not trusting any of you to plan my way out of the john."

Steven just nodded, telling him that Shuba had been sent to get some sleep himself. He introduced the man behind the desk as Jeff and said that he would develop the mission details and have Ranma's reports ready by sundown, ending. "We can't do anything until dusk. You can't just walk in and demand they return our people. They might kill them just for spite or use them as hostages."

Ranma snorted and left, trailing a cloud of curses behind him.

When he got to the dorm, he found Sunny seated at the small table in the tea room sniffling.

"What's the matter, Koi? I'm gonna kill whoever made you cry, I swear." Ranma was tired and hungry, he was also still mad at the world in general.

Sunny jumped up and grabbed Ranma, running her hands over him, making sure he wasn't injured anywhere.

"I'm just mad I can't believe Steven was stupid enough to trust that nasty man I wonder what they did to get Steven over a barrel or maybe he just made a mistake he's just human you know." At the sour expression on Ranma's face she just shut up.

"When you have peoples lives in your hands you can't afford to be 'just human'. I learned that a long time ago. Sunny I need you to be healer for a minute, no babbling, no foolishness. How reliable is Kuno? Could I depend on him to do exactly as I tell him to or would he go off on one of his weird crusades? And Ryouga . . . no I can't trust that idiot not to get lost and he's just plain too noisy." Ranma tugged his pigtail and thought while Sunny stood and made faces.

"I can do whatever you need me to do. My medication is back in effect and I'm fine again. What do you need me to do?" Kuno had been standing unnoticed in the doorway while Ranma had questioned Sunny.

"Kuno, I know you may think you're better but I need Sunny to confirm that. I'm not taking any chances with this. It's too important." Ranma turned to Sunny, he took her hands in his and pulled her close. "Sunny I know you don't want to hurt Kuno's feelings but I need to know if he can do what I need. Please, Danny and Leela's lives may depend on this."

Kuno gave Sunny an encouraging nod. "Just tell the truth as you see it. I won't be mad if you think I'm not ready to do this. It's too important for my pride to get in the way. "

"Ok. I think you're better. You haven't had an episode in nearly a week, your meds have leveled in your blood, so I don't see any reason why you can't do whatever Ranma wants. Ok, Koi? You happy?"

"Sunny, I won't be happy until I have Danny and Leela back here where I can chew them out good. But I'm better. I'm going to get something to eat and then I'm going to bed and sleep." Ranma cracked his neck and bent backwards to stretch his back. "I'm going to the mess and then I'm gonna kill the first one who wakes me up before I'm ready. Come with?"

Sunny nodded and happily slid under Ranma's left arm, next to his heart.


	26. Chapter 27

1Disclaimer. I don't own Ranma.

Chapter 27

For anyone who doesn't understand military time just subtract 12.

Ranma hunted for any member of his secondary team. He finally found Skeeter sitting under a small bridge trying to fish.

"Hey, Skeeter. Where's the rest of the crew? I need ya."Before Ranma could get any farther Skeeter grabbed him and started dragging him under the bridge. "What th' hell?"

"I heard Steven locked you up for some reason. Did you escape? Do you need help? Tell me what you need and you got it." Skeeter gave Ranma a confused look as he gently pulled back.

"I need help but not that kind. I'm ok with Steven . . . sort of. Find the others and meet me at the mess hall ASAP. I'll explain it all then." Ranma slapped Skeeter on the back. He had a lot of plans to make and he needed to get going.

At the mess, Ranma sat with his back to a wall for the first time in weeks. He explained everything to the team ending, "So I need you to be at Cen Ops at 19:00 exactly, we'll gear up from there and I'll have your assignments. You're my back up and eyes behind. I'm gonna be depending on you guys to be sure I'm not double crossed by that bastard Downs or anyone else."

Ranma headed for Stevens office next. Steven was in a state between fury and panic.

"Ranma, I know you're mad at me, but I need to know what you're up to so I can. . . . "Steven shut up at Ranmas cold glare. Ranmas beautiful blue eyes had no warmth in them, they were hard and cold as sapphires.

"Fuck off! I'm not telling you or anyone else anything till the last minute. You people; have the bad habit of reporting stuff to the wrong people at the wrong time. I'll get Leela and Danny back and retrieve your . . ." Ranma curled his lip. "objective for you. If I didn't know better, I'd think you had a hidden agenda. If you do, you'd better tell me now so I can either reject it outright or plan for it."

Steven gave up completely. Ranma didn't trust him anymore and it was his fault. He was going to let him have his way, help him anyway he could and do his best to re-earn the trust he'd sacrificed in one stupid moment.

"Ranma I can't apologize anymore, I've said I'm sorry and I am. So go to Cen Ops, make your plans, I'll call them and tell them you're to have anything you want. Just, please don't get yourself killed."

Ranma looked at Stevens sorrowful face and almost gave in, but he was still mad, he was scared for his friends which made him angry at everything to do with this mess including or especially Steven.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"19:00 right on the dot." Ranma looked around the table at his gathered friends. "I know you all want to know exactly what's goin' on. So here it is."

Ranma outlined the whole mess for everyone, then he gave assignments. The six men of the secondary team were to split into three teams of two and guard the entrances to the hotel.

"Now for the hard part." Ranma rubbed his forehead, he didn't want to do this, it would hurt Ryouga.

"Umm? Ranma, I don't think I ought to go with you. I might go berserk or get lost and you don't need to have to worry about me while you're trying to get those things from the witch. Take Kuno, he's ok again. He won't' have an episode or anything." Ryouga knew Ranma had been trying to tell him the same thing, in fact Sunny still had him slightly sedated to keep him from flying into a berserk rage. While it hurt that he couldn't help, he decided long ago not to jeopardize a mission for the sake of his pride.

"Thanks, Ryu, that helps a lot. Kuno will wait on the roof by the skylight, I'll hand the big important objectives up to him and he'll get them to Steven. Kuno, take them to Steven and no one else. Swear on your sword! No matter what anyone except me says. Understand?" Ranma gave Kuno a hard look. They couldn't afford any mistakes.

"Yes I swear! I understand completely. I'm to be the foil. Stay out of danger, take the spoils away. I'm not a child to be protected." Kuno looked ready to start a fight with Ranma his sour expression promised plenty of argument over his part in the mission.

"Not protected. We're gonna roof hop to the skylight and you're the only one, outside of Ryu, I trust to get there and back without falling. Don't give me a hard time." Ranma turned his back on Kuno moving on without another thought.

After going over everyones assignments again, he dismissed everyone except his six secondary team members.

"Look, guys. I know you think your assignments are crap but they aren't, the way I've got you deployed you can see every entrance to the hotel. The front and back doors and the loading docks, also the kitchen entrance and that small entrance to the bar. Don't let anyone carrying a big container of any kind leave also anyone who looks like they are being carried or forced. Nothing goes out the loading dock either, got it. It's a lot more important than it sounds. Be careful. No long guns, just pistols or knives. Get going"

The sun set at 19:45, Ranma checked the placement of his secondary team. They didn't bother with much in the way of disguises. They looked like almost what they were, solders hanging out, waiting for friends or hookers. They wouldn't have any trouble if they didn't start any.

Ranma returned to the van six blocks away. He changed into black BDUs; black shirt, black boots, and a grey and black vest. Kuno was already dressed the same way. They both carried weapons. Kuno had his sword and he and Ranma both carried at least a dozen throwing pins; Ranma also carried a 24 in manriki with 2 oz teardrop weights on each end, a garotte, and a chain dart with a blade-shaped end.

"Ready?" Ranma checked his gear one more time, he also checked Kuno.

"To combat may be glorious, and success perhaps may crown us; but to fly is safe. Cowper. Perhaps not quite to the point, but the look on your face is priceless. Let's go."

Ranma wanted to swat Kuno but he'd already jumped to the nearest roof and was headed for the hotel. Ranma followed him quickly. They got to the hotel and climbed the last few stories easily, using the grapnel that Kuno had carried.

Ranma dropped through the skylight silently. He'd disabled the security systems wondering what the big deal was. All he'd had to do was zap it with a little chi and the whole thing had failed quietly. As he handed the magical items up to Kuno he looked around, the room showed signs of a fight. Dents in the wall and some soiled patches on the carpet, as well as tiny bits of glass, made him sure that Leela and Danny had been here and put up quite a fight.

That worried him. What if one or both of them had been seriously hurt or even killed? The thought of either of them dead made him go cold.

"Ranma-kun, you coming? I've got the booty, let's go." Kuno had no idea exactly what Ranma had in mind, his briefing had been just that, brief. Everyone had been told what they were to do but now Ranma seemed to be changing the mission.

"I told you in briefing that I needed you to do exactly what I said, right? Now you prove you know how to obey a direct order. Take that stuff and give it to Steven. And only to him. Got it? Go!"

Ranma couldn't see Kuno he was crouched beside the skylight but he could hear the rustle of his clothes as he nodded at least Ranma hoped he was nodding.

Kuno gathered up the items into a large bundle. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ranma was going to rescue Leela and Danny but how? He found out.

As Kuno headed across the roof to drop down to the next level, he heard one of the most horrible sounds he'd ever hoped not to hear. The security system went off with a blood curdling howl. He almost turned back but then he knew what Ranma was up to. He'd set the thing off himself. That was how he was going to find their friends. He was allowing himself to be caught.

"Damnit, Ranma I hope you know what the hell you're doing. If you get yourself killed Steven will be heartbroken. And so will I. Hell, Sunny!" Kuno headed for the van six blocks away and hoped Sunny would let him talk before she ripped a strip off him.

At Steven's motion Kuno threw the bag of items at the man waiting for it. He saw Sunny and headed for her, only to be grabbed by the technician

"Do you know how valuable these thing are? If you broke one of them . . ."

Kuno jerked his arm away. "I only know that three people I love have risked their lives for a bunch of junk."

"Where's Ranma?" Sunny looked behind Kuno and Steven as if she expected him to be hiding there.

Kuno pinned Steven with a glacial stare. "Ranma allowed himself to be captured. I think he always intended it. If he's lucky they'll take him to Leela and Danny. If not . . . "

One of the backup troopers shrugged, "Well, go after him!"

"I can't." Kuno snarled, "He made me swear on my family sword that I wouldn't. Damn him! When I get hold of him."

"What? So you swore on a sword, so what." The man looked peeved.

"You Americans swear on your mother's life. Swearing on a family sword is like that only ten times more important. I swore on my life, my family honor, the lives of all my family. I can't break that oath. I just can't.." Kuno put his hands over his face, swearing softly. Sunny just poked him til he loosened up enough to get her arms around him.

"You know Ranma, he's Neko-kun, he'll land on his feet, he's got nine lives." Sunny started to cry softly.

They stood hugging each other worrying about Ranma, Leela and Danny. Steven put his arms around both of them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The instant the alarm went off guards poured in from all over. Ranma put up a token fight. He wanted to get caught, so he didn't do much more that slap a few of the men, then he let them take him. They punched him a few times and then tied him up with a piece of common curtain cord. It would have been enough to hold a big man but Ranma might as well have been tied up with sewing thread.

He endured the beating they gave him with Spartan like stoicism. {Damn, Akane hits harder that this.}

Forcing himself to go limp, Ranma lay on the floor, groaning softly. The guards picked him up roughly, throwing him over the shoulder of one of the larger men.

Ranma hit the floor with a grunt and rolled to absorb the force of the fall. He snapped the cords holding him and began to explore his prison. His hand met something soft. He felt along the body until he patted something soft and rounded. "Sorry Leela, didn't mean to grope ya." Ranma shook Leela slightly but she didn't respond only whimpering slightly.

Ranma dug the flashlight he carried out of the thigh pocket of his BDUs. He couldn't believe those idiots hadn't searched him. He still had everything he'd come in with. And an armed Ranma was even more dangerous that an unarmed one, if that was possible.

Snarling with fury Ranma realized that they had drugged Leela, she had a black eye and a split lip but other than that she didn't seem to be hurt only drugged to unconsciousness.

Ranma went to the door and listened carefully. After making sure the hall outside was unoccupied he gripped the doorknob firmly and twisted it until the cheep lock gave with a soft snap. Shifting Leela in his arms he headed for the nearest exit.

Slipping out the side door next to the loading dock he signaled for Pete and Doug, hurrying up they relieved him of his precious burden.

"Take her. They shot her up with something. Pete, you take her to the pick up. Doug, stay here and keep a sharp eye out. We got the target. Kuno took it away already. But I still have to find Danny."

Pete just nodded and started off. Doug grabbed Ranmas arm and tried to lead him away.

"You're out, come on."

"No. I'm not leaving Danny behind. If it was you would you leave him?"

Doug just shook his head "No, but I had to try. You be careful. If you get yourself killed, I'm . . ."

Yeah, I know. Beatin' my butt." Ranma couldn't see him very well, the street light was behind him but the concern in his voice warmed Ranma. "I'll be careful. Sunny'll skin me alive if I'm not."

Ranma went back into the hotel and slipped into the room he'd escaped from. He looped the broken cord around his wrists making it look as if he was still bound.

When they came for him, Ranma pretended to be weak and half conscious. He made them carry him where they wanted him to be. As he was carried Ranma took stock of his surroundings.

They took him to a sub-basement. It was open, obviously used for storage. More of a warehouse than anything.

Danny was tied to a pillar in a wash of light from an over head. He looked the worse for wear. They'd slapped him around and he was bent at the waist as far as his bonds would let him fall.

Ranma forced himself to remain limp, if he messed up now they might kill Danny before he could get to him and free him.

The man carrying him dumped him on the floor at Danny's feet. Ranma looked up into his face. He was only half conscious, his eye lids fluttering slightly as he drifted. {Damn, how'm I gonna get him out? I can't fight and carry him, he'll get hurt}

Ranma struggled to his knees and leaned against Danny's legs, acting like he was beaten down. When he touched Danny he flinched slightly so Ranma knew he was beginning to come to. Ranma looked behind the pillar and saw robed men standing around a design on the floor, they were droning out some obscure chant. There had to be at least fifty of them, in concentric rings around what he recognized as some magical symbol. {Crap, Fuckin' magic. I hate magic!}

"Danny, if you can understand me, bump me." Danny bumped Ranma with his knee. "Good. I need you to be able to get yourself out of here. I'm gonna open you a way, then I'm gonna see what's up here. I'll destroy whatever I can and get out myself. Ok?"

"I'm more conscious that I've been letting on. I can run, but they're trying to open a gate. I can't help with that. All I know is they drew a pentagram and they need two sacrifices, me and Leela. They took Leela away but I assume you've already gotten her or you wouldn't be after me. You've got to destroy the pentagram and the two vases inside it or they'll open a gate to some hell dimension."

Danny didn't raise his head or even let on he was anywhere near as alert as he was. His whisper barely reached Ranma from less that two feet away.

"Ok, I'll break your bonds and you boogie. I can't take care of you and try to destroy an empowered pentacle too. Do you know what I have to do to destroy it?" While he was talking Ranma finished taking stock of the situation. No one was paying much attention to them. They were all working on the pentacle.

"Yeah, just erase any line. At this stage of power it'll destroy itself. But be ready to run like hell. It'll probably explode and take half the basement with it."

While he was talking, Ranma broke the ropes around his ankles, then he slipped his hands from the loops of cord and jumped to his feet.

Snapping the ropes around Danny's chest he pulled out his knife and shoved the hilt into Danny's hand, yelling "Run!"

Danny did exactly that, taking the knife he ran for the nearest exit, getting himself out of Ranma's way. He knew he couldn't help Ranma so he did the only helpful thing he could. He got away so Ranma wouldn't be distracted from his objective by having to protect another.

Ranma headed for the pentacle, fighting his way through a crowd of men intent on stopping him from getting anywhere near it. He exhausted his stock of throwing pins almost immediately, using them on the men with guns. This took a lot of pressure off him. But there were still plenty of opponents intent on taking him down. He used the chain dart to open some space around him, cutting men until blood flew everywhere. But a chain dart is only good if you aren't in too close combat. One of the robed figures let it wrap around his body and trapped it.

"Nice, think you're so smart." Ranma jerked hard on the chain, the man's back broke with an audible crack and Ranma used him as a flail. Swinging the body around and knocking robed figures down in a circle around him until the chain broke.

Snapping the manriki out Ranma finally fought his way to the pentacle. It was glowing with a sour green light, like something that had been scraped off the wall of a cave. There was a small black dot between the vases. Ranma didn't like the look of that in the least.

Robed men tackled him from every direction, burying him under a pile of bodies. With a kei like a lions roar Ranma straightened up and threw them in every direction, some of them hit the ceiling and others hit pillars. Bones cracked and skulls popped

"Aaagggghhhh! You're not opening any gate while I'm alive to stop it!" Ranma threw the man he was still holding at the vases and immediately dug his fingers into the floor tearing up a chunk the size of a table. This broke the lines of the pentagram, when the vases broke too, it set off a reaction. The pentagram began to glow even more brightly and the light fluctuated wildly.

Ranma didn't get out in time. The whole sub-level collapsed on him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven swore frantically. "Son-of-a-bitch. Half the hotel sub-levels just collapsed. What the hell?"

Danny staggered out the back door of the hotel and straight into Rio's arms. "What's up kid? Where's Ran-chan?"

Rio looked at the door hoping to see Ranma come out, but all that came out was a big cloud of dust.

"Oh, frag me! Don't tell me that's what I think it is." Rio felt his stomach fall into his boots.

"Yeah it's exactly what you think it is. They were trying to open a gate. Ranma closed it." Danny fell against Rio in exhaustion and started to cry. "I don't think he made it out."

Rio got Danny over his shoulder and headed for the pickup point talking on his radio all the way. He filled Cen Ops in on what he knew and passed questions to Danny and answers back to them.

Downs showed up at just the wrong moment. "I have my objective and we'll be going now. Just thank your lucky stars that witch didn't know how to use most of them."

"Yeah, well, we may have lost Ranma because your Intel stinks. That witch was opening a gate. Ranma closed it but the hotel fell on him. We're getting ready to try to dig him out." Steven turned his back on Downs before he did something stupid. It wouldn't do any good anyway. If someone is stupid enought to make you mad enough to hit them, they're too stupid to learn anything from it. Steven kept reminding himself of that fact but it wasn't working very well. Everyone has their limits.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma woke up under a pile of concrete slabs and structural steel. His head hurt and he was pinned. Other than that he was in good shape, a few scrapes and bruises.

"Itai! My head! Shimatta! What the hell happened? I feel like the hotel fell on me." Ranma dug out his flashlight "Kusho! It did!"

Ranma pushed and shoved until he got himself out from under the pile. Then he climbed over more rubble until he reached an exit. It was blocked by large slabs of concrete and rebar, obviously the floor above and the side walls of the stair case.

"Well, nothin' for it but to dig my way out. I'm not waitin' for them to do it. They may not even try. If Downs had his way they'd just pour concrete in the hole and disavow the whole thing. I'm gonna get that fucker if it's the last thing I do. He had to know what was goin' on."

Ranma started digging, it didn't take him very long to hear digging from the other side. "Well at least they haven't stabbed me in the back yet."

Ranma rose out of the rubble like an avenging angel. His clothes were mostly torn off, he had part of his tee shirt, one sleeve torn completely off and just enough of the other to hold the body up, it looked more like a tank top with one strap than a shirt. One leg of his BDUs was torn off at the knee and the other at the upper thigh. He was cut and scrapped, dirty, sweaty and thoroughly pissed off. The muscles of his arm rippled as he clenched a fist and demanded, "Where's that fucker Steven. It was a trap from the first. He and that asshole Downs let them walk right into it."

Steven felt such relief that at first he didn't understand what Ranma was saying. Then he just stood up like a man and took it. Ranma punched him right in the face as hard as he could. Steven flew backwards into the side of the building across the street and knocked the wall down.

Shaking the fuzz out of his head quickly, he pounced on Ranma just as he grabbed Downs. He couldn't stop Ranma. A truly furious Ranma is like a force of nature. You're better off getting out of the way and letting it go. But Steven couldn't let Ranma hit Downs, he'd kill him and that was not good for anyone.

"No! Ranma you'll kill him." Sunny grabbed Ranma's arm and held on, Ranma turned his head so slowly that Sunny was afraid that he hadn't recognized her.

"Sweetie, if you ever do something like that again, I'll spank your bottom to a rosy glow. Get offa me and out of the way. I won't kill him now. Don't worry."

Instead of punching Downs, Ranma slapped him, with Steven hanging onto his arm like grim death its self, Ranma swung his arm back and slapped him full across the mouth. Then he dropped him.

"Steven get offa me. How many times am I gonna have t' say that tonight?" Ranma was calm now. He'd worked off most of his anger and the rest was cooling rapidly.

Downs wiped the blood off his mouth and started in. "I'm going to have you up on charges. You can't go around hitting me. I take my authority directly from the Emperor. That was high treason and less majest . . . "

"Fuck you and the whore who gave birth to ya. Arrest me. I dare ya. We'll see who's who."

Ranma narrowed his eyes, he was ready to be arrested, go to jail, whatever it took to get this whole mess into the light of day. Downs had used two teenagers to accomplish his ends, not caring in the slightest if they lost their lives in the process. Maybe even hoping that they would.

All hell broke loose for the second time that night. Downs called someone and they called Steven. Steven, holding an ice pack to his aching jaw, put his foot in it, "Well, he socked me. Downs didn't give us all the information. I wouldn't have let my operatives go in if I'd known how dangerous it was. No, I don't care. You're going to what? You can't do that. I'm what? Ok fine. We'll see."

Steven smashed Downs' phone onto the street and grabbed him by the jacket. "I'm gonna have you for breakfast. I'm not sure how you did what ever it is you did, but now that I don't have anything to lose, you're toast."

Ranma tiredly pried Steven off Downs. "Stop that. You can't do anything that way. I've got it under control." Ranma smirked at Steven. "Leave them all to me. They are going down." At Steven's puzzled look Ranma reminded him of something he'd said. "If you're innocent or want something out in the open rely on a military court. Right? Well, I'm relying on Department 13's court system and I hope you're right. Or I'm gonna spend a considerable amount of my life running."

The MP's hauled out a set of transport chains and shackled Ranma. He just followed their orders. They weren't rough with him, to them he just looked like a tired kid, probably some hot shot's juvenile delinquent son, who'd pushed the envelope one step too far and was in for a scared straight lesson.

"Come on little man, let's get this over with. What the hell did you blow up?" The MP hated this kind of thing and wasn't about to try to scare this kid.

"Huh? Oh. The hotel." Ranma was dropping off the adrenaline high and falling asleep, even his powerful physique ambushed by long hours, worry, exhaustion from digging himself out and adrenaline crash. "Can we go? I'd like a nice quiet cell somewhere."

"Oh God! I hope that little snot knows what the hell he's doing. I got relieved of my command so I can't help him any." Steven just put his face in Sunnys hair and broke down.

Everyone gathered around Steven and Sunny. The whole group that was still there, Leela and Danny had been taken to the hospital where Ryouga was waiting for them. But everyone else was there,

the whole Conroy-gumi and Kuno and Shuba; asking questions and staring after Ranma walking away in handcuffs and leg irons the drop and belly chains glittering in the street lights.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma sat at the table in the interrogation room, his hopes of a bed anytime soon had been dashed the minute he'd gotten in the door and heard the word debriefing. Now he was still wanting a bed but they kept asking him the same questions over and over.

"Quit asking me the same fuckin' worn out questions over and over. You took notes, I saw you. Read them. No matter how many times you ask a question, you won't get a different answer. I don't need to lie."

Ranma rubbed his eyes wearily being careful not to break the chain on the handcuffs he wore. "Can I get some coffee?"

"If you answer a few more questions, we'll get you anything you want." The prosecutor offered Ranma the bribe, sure that Ranma would fall for it.

"Shimatta! Jerk. I'm sixteen, not six. Fuck with someone else wouldja' When you're through bein' stupid come back." Ranma put his head between his out stretched arms and yawned.

"Sorry kid. You can't sleep yet. I've looked at your file, it says right here you're twenty-six. So don't jerk me around." Ranma looked younger than twenty-six but the prosecutor had experience with men who looked much younger than they were. So he went by the file not what Ranma said. He didn't look like the kind who would attack a superior officer but you never knew.

Five hours later Ranma was still saying the same thing, "I already answered that. Read your fuckin notes, damnit. You can't trip me up, so don't try." Finally he asked the question that the prosecutor didn't want to hear. "OK I've had it up to here, can I talk to a JAG officer."

The prosecutor tried one more time. "That's American. Judge Advocate General's office. We don't have any."

"Yeah? Well, I may not know what to call it but you know exactly what I mean and I want representation. Now! Don't jerk me around any more. I've been up for over 36 hours now and eight of them right here in this chair. I want the john, and I want to go to sleep. If you don't let me I'm going to consider myself under undue influence and take steps."

Undue influence was the same thing as saying he was going to press abuse charges. The prosecutor backed off.

"OK. Look, my name is Wheedon. I'm just trying to do my job. I have to know everything and . . ."

"Piss off. You just want me to admit to everything so you can sweep the whole mess under a rug, get Downs off with nothing and put my ass in a sling because I wouldn't lay down and be his butt monkey. He sent my friends into a trap and woulda' gotten them sacrificed for real. Those robed wonders weren't playin' patty cake. You do what you have ta' and so will I, but if you think I'm stayin awake much longer you got another think comin'" Ranma put his head back down on the table and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Steven had gotten into his office and was making calls all over, pulling in favors right and left. The only thing he could do was to force the trial he knew was coming up. If he could make it happen fast enough Downs wouldn't have time to get to any of the witnesses and pressure them. Of course most of the witnesses were Department 13 and on Ranma's side anyway.

The evidence that Steven had managed to get his hands on pointed to exactly what Ranma had said. Downs didn't care about Leela and Danny, he wanted the items recovered, the witch's operations shut down and everything gone. Swept under the rug, out of public radar, whatever the newest catch phrase was for make it go away.

This time it wasn't going to happen. Steven had made a huge mistake trusting Downs and another by trying to keep Ranma out of the loop. So now he was on suspension and calling in favors he'd never intended to. But he was going to help Ranma with whatever he was up to any way he could. He just hoped it was enough.

Look General Chesterton. I don't know exactly what's going on but I know that prick Downs is up to something dirty. We can't afford to loose Ranma and we're so close it's not funny. He's the most powerful martial artist in the world. He slaps me around like a three-year-old. If he runs, we'll never catch him and I don't like the thought of him going bad. I don't think he will but if you push him too hard the chance is there. He's only sixteen, for God's sake. Yeah, sixteen, and he's been through hell."Steven listened for a while then went on, "Ok, all I want is for you to assemble the fairest board you can and do it soon as you can. Ranma has been in their hands for eight hours now and he hasn't been let out of the interrogation room even for a john break. If he cracks it won't be pretty and it'll be plenty violent. Let's avoid that, I'd like to keep the compound in one piece. They don't call him the Wild Horse of Nerima for nothing. He tore a Momma Imp to pieces with his bare hands. I don't know how those idiots are keeping him chained."

Finally Steven hung up and stretched, the trial was tomorrow at 9:am. He put his head down on the desk and pounded it on the top until it cracked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Please don't flame me with "They couldn't keep Ranma in chains" he's letting them. Just so you'll know.


	27. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma, Rumiko Takahachi does. I just borrowed him for a while.

Chapter 28

The trial didn't happen as quickly as everyone hoped. The prosecutor kept Ranma in debriefing until the last minute, not realizing that Steven had gotten the trial board together so fast.

Ranma had been allowed to sleep for two hours.

"Excuse me young man my name is Adams and I'm here to represent you."

Ranma opened bleary eyes and groaned. "It's a fuckin' conspiracy. I"m not gonna get any sleep any time soon am I."

Adams opened his briefcase and extracted a sheaf of papers. After flipping through them he tapped them back into perfect alignment with fussy pats of his fingers.

"I know you have been questioned but I have my own questions and we need to discuss a plea bargain."

"NO! Absolutely no plea bargain. You have no idea what that man did. If he gets away with it, none of my people will ever be safe from that kind of manipulation. He just doesn't care if one of us gets killed. As long as his mission gets accomplished, he's satisfied. I told the prosecutor all about it, read the reports. "

Ranma knew exactly what he was going to do and his lawyer was going to cooperate or he would represent himself.

"I see. Well, I've read the reports and quite frankly I'm appalled that anyone would do half the things that Downs person has gotten away with."

Adams fiddled with his tie and then picked up a report and studied it for a moment.

"Steven has managed to push the Review Board through with amazing speed. In fact it's as soon as we can get prepared. We have about ten hours."

Ranma just put his head down on the table, he couldn't sleep when his lawyer was preparing his defense, he'd need questions answered. He had now been awake for over 48 hours with one short nap {If new recruits can survive Hell Week, I can do this}

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I don't understand how a young man your age can be so ill informed. You don't seem to understand anything about how a court works. At twenty-six you should know more, even though it is a Military Court, many of the procedures are the same. Did you skip Citizenship all together?"

Adams was beginning to quietly lose his temper.

"I'm only sixteen, Citizenship is next semester, and I'm not military. "

Ranma was getting really tired of the whole thing, he wanted the trial over, he was so tired all he wanted to do was sleep. He'd even gotten over being hungry.

He'd now been awake for fifty-three hours.

Adams fished around in his briefcase and compared two pieces of paper.

"Humm. I have your birth certificate and here, in this folder, a resume. The resume says 26 but your birth certificate definitely indicates your age is 16.

"We've got him now for sure. Falsification of this sort of document is a felony in any country.

"We have three hours before the Hearing. You need to get cleaned up."

Adams did a double take and flushed hotly. He'd been so intent on his preparations he'd actually not noticed what Ranma looked like and the dim lighting in the interrogation room hadn't helped either.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxX

Vignette

We really got him. He's going to show up at his Hearing looking like an undisciplined, loose canon.

We'll be off the hook, Department 13 will be discredited and we can have our sanction back.

Downs straightened his silk tie, his suit was Armani and he was wearing Gucci loafers and carrying a Coach briefcase. He looked every inch the well-qualified intelligence officer he was supposed to be.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"We have to get you cleaned up quickly. You need a new uniform and . . . ahem . . . a shower. Have you seen a doctor? I'm really sorry, young man. I tend to be somewhat single minded at times. I didn't notice your condition until just now. The lighting in here leaves much to be desired. We'll have to hurry."

But Adams was too late. The guards came for Ranma, they put him in transport chains and took him to the holding cell just outside the court room.

They left him there, but he didn't dare fall asleep yet, even though his body was screaming for rest.

He had to watch the proceedings, relayed to the cell via closed circuit TV.

Adams was a very good lawyer so instead of mourning the mess Ranma was he decided to make it work for them. He entered the Hearing room and after all the preliminaries were over he addressed the court.

"If it please the Court, my client had been unable to make himself presentable due to the rapidity with which these proceedings were arranged.

"I would also like to present these documents which prove the true age of this brave young boy. Yes I said boy, as you can see, Saotome Ranma is sixteen years of age."

The files, which the three generals had been provided, outlined all the charges, extenuating circumstances and the fact that Ranma was indeed only sixteen.

The trial was boring in the extreme, as Adams and Wheedon were polite and professional, neither interrupted the other, so the proceedings went quickly.

When Wheedon was presented with the proof of Ranma's age, he agreed to drop the treason charges immediately. Downs tugged on his arm and protested a little too loudly. He was charged with contempt of court and reprimanded as well as sentenced to thirty days suspended sentence.

After most of the proceedings were over, the Review Board (they aren't referred to as a Military Tribunal anymore) requested Ranma be brought in.

He'd now been awake for almost sixty hours.

All three generals were shocked to see that, not only was Ranma shackled, he hadn't been given the opportunity to clean up. He was still nearly naked, dirty, sweaty, scraped and cut. And he looked so very young standing there with his head up, feet braced, back straight.

"Well young man, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I don't know what you want so I'll just get it all off my chest and then you can do whatever you want to me.

"Downs put two of my best friends in danger, said they were expendable, I think he knew that witch was opening some kind of portal and thought if he stole her magical objects it'd shut her down. He didn't care if they got hurt or not. In fact I think he was hoping they would get killed so he wouldn't have to figure out how to get then to keep their mouths shut.

"He got me chained up so I couldn't go with. Then he just took off.

"I'm just a rude, crude, smart ass kid, so no one really listened to me. After Danny and Leela got caught I . . . "

Ranma sighed and sagged, he dug the heels of his hands into his burning eyes snapping the chains in the process.

"Gomen, Gomen nasai. Onegai. Look, I know I'm not making much sense, but I've stolen stuff, gotten myself captured, been beaten up, rescued Leela, gone back into the hotel, rescued Danny, fought off or killed about fifty idiots in funky robes, destroyed an empowered pentacle, and had a hotel fall on me, dug myself out, been arrested, interrogated for the last hundred hours, I've been up for about sixty hours with two or three hours sleep. I'm tired, filthy, and sleepy.

"Can we just get this over with. You know what kind of bastard he is now. Just don't sweep this all under a rug. OK? Oh yeah, I'm sorry about the chains." Ranma lifted his wrist, chain dangling.

"Hump. While we are deliberating someone replace those defective shackles."

The generals put their heads together, one of them suggested that Ranma had exaggerated about the hotel but the reports were very detailed and the data had been analyzed throughly by their people. The reports indicated that a significant portion of a building had indeed fallen on this weary looking sixteen-  
year-old.

Standing between two guards chosen by Adams for their size, Ranma looked pitiful. He was at least a head shorter than the shorter guard, the chains stood out against Ranma's filth darkened skin and his overall condition could be graded as poor to awful.

Standing next to a carefully groomed Downs, he looked heroic, or horrific

Downs, on the other hand, looked like a shyster lawyer. His suit was too expensive for his rank and Gucci and Coach made the wrong impression even more evident. With his slicked back hair and fresh manicure, all he'd done was cut his own throat. Everyone knew who had prevented Ranma from having even the simple creature comfort of being clean.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, Well, Well . . . As head of this review board I have several items which I must address.

"One, Mr. Downs you will be taken into custody at once, your actions are now under investigation. Steven Campbell is reinstated as head of Dept. 13.

"Now, unfortunately, we have the very real charges against young Mr. Saotome.

"First, three counts of assault and battery, one against Mr. Downs and two against Mr. Campbell.

"Your counselor, in pleading you not guilty, brought attention to the abuses of Downs and co. However, that left you open to stockade time. We have very little leeway in this. These charges are serious and even taking your tender age into account there is only so much we can do."

The speaker rubbed his hand over the page before him.

"The rules of this organization are very clear. I have read them several times and I cannot believe that they actually allow for flogging . . ."

The uproar was immediate and loud. All Ranma's friends had been quietly waiting for Ranma to be acquitted but it was clear now that it wasn't going to happen that way. They were talking about flogging Ranma.

The general hammered his gavel on the table until everyone quieted down.

"Order in the Court. These proceedings will not be interrupted again. I'll clear the room."

Everyone shut up and sat down, no one wanted to be thrown out and miss the sentencing. Ranma needed all the support he could get.

"As I was saying. I don't believe it. It's not civilized. We have discussed this extensively, that's why we took so long to make a decision.

"The minimum sentence we can give this brave, self sacrificing young man is 90 days in the stockade. Take him away."

He banged his gavel.

Ranma just nodded his head, he was so exhausted that all he could do was stand and wait for someone to tell him what to do.

By now he'd been up for 66 hours.

When they got him to the stockade, the Master Gunnery Sargent in charge was waiting for them, intending to make it plain to this George that he wasn't going to get special treatment. He changed his mind

Ranma was staggering, only managing to keep up right because the two guards he was walking between were practically carrying him. He looked like he'd just stepped out of hell itself. As they got him in the door the Gunnie had a fit.

"What the hell is going on here, he looks like he stepped off a battle field into the court room and then straight here."

"Well, that's about right. He's been up for most of three days. I don't think he's had anything to eat and not much to drink either. If you take my advice you'll skip intake and let the poor kid get some sleep. You can print him and lecture him later. He probably won't remember anything you say to him anyway."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, Buck, you remember that kid that broke your rope?"

Buck punched in and grinned at his partner, "Sure do. Kid was a real pistol. Strong as an ox but seemed really nice. Why?"

"He's asleep in the drunk tank. They brought him in a while ago. Sentenced to 90 days for assaulting an officer. Wouldn't believe the mess he's in. Looks like he crawled out of hell." Tony shook his head. "I think they railroaded him. Didn't even let him clean up. Damn shame if you ask me."

"Didn't ask you. Which tank is he in and why is he in a tank instead of a regular cell?"

Buck headed for intake at a trot with Tony right behind him.

"I said he looks like he crawled out of hell and I meant literally, he's filthy. So they put him in a tank so we can clean up after him. He stinks. I don't know how long he was up, but one of the guys who brought him in said something about nearly 72 hours and a building falling on him."

Tony trotted hard to keep up with Buck's longer legs.

Buck took one look a Ranma and decided he was going to clean him up. Unfortunately Ranma wasn't waking up to be cleaned. He was out cold. Ranma, on a good day, was fairly hard to wake up. Unless you tried to sneak up on him. But shaking him didn't work or it worked too well. In this case it didn't work.

Buck took some sensible precautions as he started to wash Ranma, he made noise, putting the wash pan down with a soft thump and splashing the water when he wet the rag. He also talked to Ranma.

"Ok, Saotome, I'm gonna wash your face now. Silly boy, don't make such a face, it's only soap."

Buck kept up a flow of comment as he washed Ranma's face, hands and arms. He couldn't do much for the rest of him but at least he got off the worst of the dirt and blood.

"Saotome, I'm done. You're about as clean as I can get you. I'm gonna take your boots off, didn't your mother teach ya not to go to bed with them on? When you wake up you can get a shower before we sign you in."

Buck picked up his mess and went to speak with the Captain.

Captain McIntosh was reading the intake report, he had a George on his hands and he wasn't happy. He'd heard about the Georges and the report he held was making him even more nervous.

The man was schizophrenic or psychotic, had a split personality, thought he was a cat.

The man was twenty-six, they'd put some kind of note on his age but he couldn't read kanji so he had no idea what it said.

"Captain. I'd like to talk to you about Saotome. He's really a mess. They didn't let him get cleaned up, or even sleep, before his trial. I think he got the bums rush and for some reason he's letting them do it. We really need to see that he doesn't get screwed over any more."

Buck worried about Ranma. Captain McIntosh was by the book all the way. If it wasn't contained between the covers of the rule book, he had trouble handling it. He was good at his job, keeping a bunch of petty criminals in line wasn't easy, but he did it.

He ruled with a fair hand, follow the rules and the sentence was easy, break them and he cracked down with a vengeance.

There wasn't much trouble in his stockade. However he never dealt with much more than drunks, AWOL's and the occasional misappropriation of supplies. The really bad cases were just released into the custody of their services or sent back wherever they came from. In other words Ranma was going to have a major freak factor and no telling how McIntosh was going to react.

Captain McIntosh tapped the file he'd just read. Downs had made sure that it was as biased as possible, so until it was changed Ranma was going to have a bad reputation.

"I've read his file. He's nothing but a trouble maker. He thinks he's above the rules because he's on the Special Squad.

"I understand you actually looked in on him so I want a report on his condition. But he isn't getting special consideration. If he was brought in in bad condition I want it corrected asap, but he gets signed in like everyone else. Understand?"

"Yes, sir. He's still sleeping. They kept him up for almost three days and you'll have a report of his mission activities on your desk as soon as I can get it for you. You really need to know what you are dealing with.

"Just don't forget he's a good kid, he's just got in over his head and they fucked him over."

Buck was even more worried now. He had no idea how Ranma was going to react to the rules and regulations of a stockade or how the other prisoners were going to react to him. And McIntosh's reaction to Ranma's file didn't bode any good either.

"If he has been abused by the prosecutors office, I'll file a complaint. See to it that he's taken proper care of and warn the guards that, while we aren't taking any shit out of him, neither will I tolerate them abusing him in anyway. Make sure he understand the rules. I don't want any trouble though misunderstanding."

McIntosh kept his head down, he knew that these men could interpret a direct stare as a challenge, he wasn't getting into a confrontation with Buck over some hard case.

"Read the charges and act accordingly. I don't want to have to put you on report.

"Be careful with him. He's already proven himself to be dangerous. Assaulting a superior officer is a very serious charge. That's what I don't understand. Why don't they just boot him?"

Buck looked at his feet so as not to glare at his commanding officer.

"He's a George! There are only three young ones and we need him so badly. If he was a mass murderer they'd still cut him major slack. I don't know exactly why Ranma did want he did but I'm sure in my own mind he had a good reason.

"If I were you, I'd be really careful of him. He's got combat reflexes he can't help. If he's startled or abused he's going to react badly, for us. Also he's strong as a . . . I don't know what. Really, really strong."

"What do you suggest?" McIntosh didn't have men on his command that he didn't trust, he waited patiently while Buck thought

"Hhunn? Ranma has a personal routine, training, meditation, stuff like that, even some classes, I think. The closer to his routine he can stay, the less he's gonna feel threatened. Let him exercise, keep him worn out and we'll have less trouble.

"I hate to say this but every one of the stupid drunks we have in here now is gonna want to start a fight with him just to see how good he is. I don't know how to discourage that but we've gotta."

Buck knew how hard it was going to be on Ranma but the only suggestion he could come up with was, "if he's in the exercise yard he's gonna have to be restrained, somehow. I don't like it but we can't chain up the ten guys that are gonna want to fight him so we gotta restrain him. Not fair, but there you are. It's either that or deal with ten different fights. Damn!"

Captain McIntosh made his decision and wasn't pleased with it, he hated favoritism and it's opposite equally.

"You're right. It's not fair to him, but we can't have him fighting. Make sure he understands why we're doing it. Find out what his routine is and let him stick as close to it as he can. If he has enough to do, we may keep him busy enough to stay out of trouble. I don't like this. It feels wrong."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma woke up with a jerk, in his face stinking of garlic.

"Nani yo! Baka! Nan da kor'ya! Omao wa ku . . . "

Ranma realized that he was kneeling on a man with his left hand on his throat and his right groping at his thigh for his knife.

"Shit! What the hell is the matter with you people? Do you have a death wish? Don't do that!"

Ranma scrambled off the guy and backed into a corner. He looked like a mad man with his unbound hair falling in his blood shot eyes.

Master Gunnery Sargent Polk arrived on the run.

"What is going on here?"

The man Ranma had attacked stayed where he was.

"I don't know. I came in to wake him up and when I leaned over him he jumped me. I didn't do nothing."

Gunnie Polk grunted, this wasn't starting out good.

"Yeah, ya did. Ya leaned over a combat vet and probably breathed on him. That's enough to get ya killed. Hell! I'd knock ya into next week myself."

Just then a new guard rushed up with a stun gun and immediately fired it at Ranma. The darts streaked toward Ranma but they never connected, Ranma slapped them out of the air, they stuck into the wall by his head and sparked.

Ranma decided the only way to defuse this situation was to claim fault. He put his palms together at heart level bowed form the waist and apologized, "Moshi waki arimasen! Onegai, Shimaimasen."

He looked directly at the Gunnie. "Tasukete!"

Gunnie Polk got a good look at Ranma and swore.

"Damnit! Here, get out. Go back to the desk and stay there. You're on report for unauthorized use of a stun gun."

He snatched the gun from the guard and pushed him down the hall.

Holding out a hand to the man on the floor he tried to soothe Ranma.

"Let me get dumb ass here out . . . Ok? . . . Don't worry. He's not hurt. Don't do anything sudden. Ok? "

Ranma watched as his victim got to his feet and left quickly.

"What do you want? We can negotiate. But I'm warning you, all you're doing is causing yourself grief. This is a real bad way to start out."

Ranma let his shoulders slump. "Shimatta!" Ranma smacked himself on the forehead. "Shuri nuke me! Naze ore zo?"

The Gunnie groaned to himself. "Un. Yamero! . . . Un . . . Shit! Do you speak any English at all?"

"Yeah, I speak English. I'm sorry, when I get upset it kinda flies outta my head."

Ranma scraped his hair out of his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

"I said . . . There is no excuse for my actions. Please, I'm sorry. Help me. Then I said Shit. You fuckin' idiot. Why me?"

Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and his right ankle over his left. It put him off balance and hopefully would give him time to control his reactions.

"Thank God for small favors. Look, I know exactly what happened. I hate having someone lean over me when I'm sleeping, too. We'll give it a pass. I'm gonna have a piece of two guys real soon. I"m sorry about that stun gun. I know it wasn't necessary. Why don't you come out of the cell? No one is going to hurt you."

Ranma decided to do what he was told as long as they didn't start beating on him. So he came out of the dimly lit cell into the light of the hall. There were two guards and the Gunnie standing easy so as not to set him off again.

Their reaction to his condition was everything Ranma could have hoped for. They were horrified and said so. After some discussion it was decided to get him clean first.

"Then you get the two cent tour and the twenty-dollar lecture. Keep your nose clean, yada, yada, yada. Here's the shower room. If anybody bothers you in anyway tell us at once. We don't tolerate harassment. Understand?"

Ranma, who had been following the Gunnie's tour, shook his head.

"Haven't a clue. No one will bother me. Why would they? Most of the guys you're worried about know what happens when you push me too far."

The Gunnie sighed, he really hated this part of his job, to disillusion someone. "I mean if anyone tries to touch you in a sexual way . . . "The Gunnie trailed off. He had looked into Ranmas eyes and seen pure hell.

"Then you'll be sentencing me for murder." Ranma wiped the bleak look from his face and turned to the shower. "How long can I stay in the shower? I'm really disgusting. I need soap and stuff. "Ranma ran his hands through his hair, grimacing at the snarls.

A guy brought soap, shampoo, and clean clothes, he also brought Ranma's boots.

They gave him everything and left him alone, telling him that he could take as long as he needed.

Ranma stood under the water, turning it up til it nearly steamed. He washed his hair three times and rinsed til the water ran clear. He scrubbed himself throughly, hissing at the sting of soap in his still healing cuts and scrapes. He soaped again and found himself kneeling on the tile floor under the hot running water one hand pressed over his mouth so no one would hear him. {I'm so tired. I don't wanna do this but I'm stuck}

"Hey kid, you fall in and drown or what? Come on, lets get this over with."

The Gunnie decided to do the intake himself, he had experience with Combat himself and thought he would have a better time getting things done without causing another incident.

"Ok. You ever been arrested before?"

Ranma shook his head and started to braid his hair.

"Don't bother. You'll just have to take it down again. You can do that later.

"I'm gonna explain what's gonna happen so you don't freak out. First, we take pictures so we have a record of distinguishing marks. Scars, tattoos, like that. Then, we do a full body search. Don't fight me on that, it's got to be done, so just relax, let me do it and it won't hurt. So . . . let's get started. Then you can get dressed."

Ranma endured the picture taking with fairly good grace. But the full body search left him shaking.

The Gunnie had told him what he was going to do before he did it. Having the man look in his mouth wasn't bad even when he'd used a piece of gauze to hold his tongue up and to each side. But when he'd gone below the belt it had been all Ranma could do not to resist.

"OK, I don't like this part any better then you will, so just get it over with. Bend over and hold your ankles. Don't tense up."

Ranma endured his impersonal probe but when he touched his testicles that was just about it. Ranma jumped and straightened.

"I can't! Don't touch me anymore."

Ranma knew he was holding on by a thread.

"Easy kid. I"m done."

Gunnie Polk changed the subject, trying to put Ranma a little more at ease. A full body search is humiliating in the extreme and for someone who had never endured one, Ranma had taken it better than most.

"Hell of a set of scars there. What happened, if I'm not pushing buttons?"

Ranma rubbed his shoulder.

"Imp clawed me. Sunny's tried to heal it several times. I don't generally scar, but she says she thinks the imp blood I got in them did something. I'll have them forever. I don't quite understand. The whip scars healed good. They only show when I get really mad or draw blood to the surface of my skin."

While he talked Ranma quickly combed and braided his hair. He was pulling on pants when he mentioned the whip scars.

"Hold it! What scars? I've seen you. You don't have any other scars. Don't shit a shitter. "

Gunnie didn't like guys who 'put on airs' to make themselves look tougher.

Ranma stopped dressing and stood for a moment with his shirt dangling from one hand. With his shoulders slightly slumped, head ducked, he looked at the Gunnie a second, then shrugged.

"Go get your camera. I'll be ready for ya when ya get back."

Gunnie Polk decided to humor the guy, he'd been cooperative, so he went to get a camera.

"God Damnit! What the hell happened to you? I've never seen anything like this. How did you do that?"

Ranma was standing in the middle of the room, shirt still in his hand, but with his back to the door. His scars showed red against his clean skin and looked, at first, like they were fresh.

"What happened? I was whipped half to death. They healed good. You can feel them under my skin. But when I draw blood to the surface this happens, a hot shower will do it too. Take your damn pictures, will ya?"

Gunnie Polk took his pictures, wondering just how much this kid had endured in his short life and hoping he wasn't to twitchy. He hated dealing with guys with a bunch of twitches. It made it hard on everyone.

"Better get dressed, Captain isn't gonna wait much longer. Won't pay to piss him off.. Likes to give his lecture and all before lunch."

"Lunch? What time is it? All of a sudden I'm starving."

Ranma ran a washcloth over his face and turned the water off.

Finishing getting dressed, he saw that the shirt had a number over the pocket instead of his name and also had a big P on the back. The pants had a P on each leg. He knew what that stood for and it hurt.

Captain McIntosh had read the file from cover to cover and all he could think was he had a real problem.

He looked up at Ranma and started, "I know you feel you've been ill-treated but that is neither here nor there. You will serve 90 days here. They can either go quickly or be a miserable experience. It's all up to you.

"You are the most violent prisoner we have at present. I will tolerate no fighting in my Stockade. Unfortunately your reputation makes you a prime target for some of the other men who want to build a reputation. They won't leave you alone. We can't chain them all up so you will be in transport shackles whenever you are in the exercise yard. If you have a personal routine that we can tolerate we'll try to keep you on it."

Ranma looked at the Captain in shock, how could he train if they kept him in chains.

"Uuhh. Well I do a lot of trainin', up to five hours a day, then I meditate, I've also got school to keep up with. I've actually got a calculus test I've been avoiding for about a month now. So, if you could figure out a way that I could train, I'd really appreciate it."

McIntosh just pinned Ranma with an evil look.

"I hate a liar. You can't train that much. I'll allow you to . . . "He stopped talking as Ranma just went absolutely blank.

"Don't. Ever. Call. Me. A Liar."

Ranma took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

"I will prove what I say. I run at least 5 miles a day. I do kata for at least two hours and I can go for four, easy. I meditate up to an hour and my studies take as long as they take. If you keep me in chains, I can't train. And I need to keep in shape. If there is an attack I can't afford to be soft."

"Stay calm. I shouldn't have said that. I'll give you a chance to prove what you say. You get up early to train if I know martial artists. That leaves the yard empty. No one else will be there until late morning.

"The only time you will be restrained is if you are in the general population where the men who'll want to fight are. As for running, obviously you can't run around the compound but we've got several treadmills. I'll make sure there is one free when you want it. "

"Now at 26 you aren't the youngest prisoner here but . . . "

"Sixteen"

"What?!" McIntosh froze.

"Shimatta! Kuso! Can't you read? I'm sixteen. Says so on my birth certificate. Downs changed the records. All he did was change the one's to two's."

Ranma watched as both Polk and McIntosh turned white.

The captain looked at the records and pointed to the English top sheet.

"Right here it says 26. Who do you think you're fooling with?"

Ranma looked at the paper. "Yeah and right there it's amended." He pointed to the kanji over the crossed out age.

McIntosh looked at Polk. "You read this?"

Polk eyed the paper, grimaced and nodded.

"Yeah and it says sixteen."

He scrabbled papers around.

"Shit! Here's his birth certificate. He's fuckin' sixteen years' old. I"m not even doin' this. How the hell can anyone with a particle of common sense send a kid to . . . here."

Ranma finally broke. He just covered his face with his hands and shook. Polk touched him on the shoulder.

"Look kid we'll get you transferred to a Juvenile Center in Nerima. It'll be ok."

Ranma snatched his hands away from his face.

"NO! You can't do that. If you send me to a Juvie center I'll probably kill someone. I'm a real combat vet with all the crazy reflexes that come with it. You read my jacket it's real. You are the only place in the area that's prepared to handle me. I can do this. I have to."

Polk found himself with his arms around a softly sobbing, heart broken, sixteen year old.

"I have to stay. If you let me off Downs will get away with everything. The Review Board won't . . . he'll figure some way to wiggle out. I stay, they crawl all over him and find out everything he's been up to. I walk and so does he. Besides, I really did slug Steven."

Ranma pushed Polk away gently, accepted the tissue he was offered and cleaned himself up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to act like a baby. I'm just still tired and really hungry. I'm gettn kinda' swimmy headed."

McIntosh made his decision,only saying, "Ok. Get him something to eat. We'll deal with everything else as it comes' up. Here Saotome, this is the rule book. You'll notice that it's not very thick. The rules are few and simple."

"Yeah.", Ranma fired up one last time. "There are a few rules that come along with me and you can't violate them. In this place it's way too dangerous. I don't feel secure here so I'm gonna be real touchy and I can't help it so tellin' me t' suck it up won't work."

Polk sighed, he hated dealing with twitchy vets, you couldn't afford mistakes. "You got twitches, tell us about them." He made a warning face at McIntosh, who didn't understand about twitches.

"You can't walk up behind me without warning. At least six feet away you gotta make a noise. I can't sit in the middle of a room I gotta have my back to a wall or something. And absolutely don't mess with me while I'm eating. Don't touch my plate or food. I'll jump ya in a second and I can't seem to break the habit. I even slugged my best friend once. Don't lean over me when I'm asleep. If ya need me to wake up throw something at me."

McIntosh looked at Polk, he was responsible for the day to day management of difficult prisoners and Ranma was turning out to be a problem of gigantic proportions. Polk just shrugged, everything depended on how cooperative Ranma was.

"Well Boss, either we're screwed or we got no problems we can't handle. Depends on Saotome more than anything; if he want's to cooperate we're ok, but if he wants to cause problems, we're in deep shit"

Ranma decided honesty would get him farther in the long run.

"I don't want any trouble. All I want to do is serve my time and get back to my dorm and friends with as little problems as possible. I'll be honest with ya. Keepin' me in chains is gonna be hard."

"Thought you said you didn't want problems. Resisting the Officers is going to cause . . . "

Ranma held up a hand. "I didn't say it would be a problem to get me in chains. I said it would be a problem keeping me in them. I'm so strong that I break them without meaning to."

Polk turned to McIntosh. "Tell you both what. Why don't we just get him something to eat? I'll talk to Steven and then we'll deal. Come on kid, I'll take ya to the mess. It should be closed this time of day but we kept ya from lunch so I'll get one of the trustees to make you something."

Ranma just sighed and followed Polk out the door. Buck was hanging around and he followed them into the mess.

"Hey Saotome. How's it goin' Get something to eat and then I'll sit down with you and Polk so we can have a chat."

The trustee didn't mind getting Ranma a plate and he didn't stint on the calories either. Ranma sat down with his back to the wall and dug into a plate full of spaghetti and meat balls with a big side of apple pie and ice cream, washed down with several glasses of milk.

As Ranma ate, he looked at Buck and Gunnie Polk. He knew that they were going to be the men responsible for him and he didn't want to start out wrong with them. He'd started out with enough problems as it was.

"Ok Saotome. I remember you and I know that want ever is going on, you got a bum deal. But we're stuck with the consequences. The bosses want to keep fighting to a minimum so they usually keep the worst prisoners in transports to stop the rep builders from fighting with them.

"It's not fair but we can confine one guy not ten or fifteen. And according to the jacket we got on you . . . Well it sounds like you're psychotic or something. So you get the dirty end of the stick."

Polk just gave it to Ranma like it was. He wasn't going to sugar coat it, that wouldn't be fair.

Buck stuck in his two cents worth.

"Yeah, so anytime you're in general population you'll be in transports and . . . um . . . Gunnie we really got a problem, He's strong as an ox and chaining him is going to be tough."

Polk pinned Ranma with an odd look.

"We use the regular sets until or unless there is a problem. You understand me Saotome?"

Ranma got an arrested look on his face.

"Yeah I think I do. Thanks Gunnie I'll try not to let you down. Buck? You gonna be one of my guards?"

"Yeah, I can get Gunnie here to arrange it. Why?"

Buck waited for the answer he hoped Ranma would give.

"Because I need someone who understands exactly what they're dealing with near me and I think you're it. "

"I was afraid you were going to say that. Ok I'll be here for you. We need to make arrangements. Polk you finish intake yet?"

Polk just shook his head.

"I didn't get around to the lists and all that. Captain wanted to see him before lunch but we missed it. So I got all the stuff here on this clip board. I'll write it out, Saotome, most of the men here are American or English and can't read Kanji. I'll just read off the questions and write the answers for you OK?"

Ranma nodded and then endured a spate of questions ranging from personal routine and 'quirks' to a list of acceptable visitors.

"No one! I won't see anyone." Ranma shook his head stubbornly.

"OK? No one, but why not?" Polk knew how much visits meant to most of the men so he couldn't understand why Ranma didn't want visitors.

"I don't want my friends to see me like this. Especially my girl. I got to do this on my own."

Ranma couldn't stand the idea of anyone seeing him in transport chains and prisoner slops.

"Ok whatever. If you change your mind let me know. There are a few people we can't deny access to. Steven for one . . . "

Ranma interrupted, "Steven's ok, I'm still kinda mad at him but if he needs to see me. I'll see him."

They took Ranma to a cell and telling him that they would get him for supper locked him in.

Ranma looked around his 'home' for the next 90 days and felt like he was going to strangle for a second. The cell was eight by eight with a cot, chair, desk and a combo facility. A toilet toped by a sink, in order to use the toilet his shoulders bumped the sink, to use the sink he had to straddle the toilet. Not good but not easily broken either. There was a computer imbedded in the desk.

He lay down on the cot and when they came for him for supper he refused to go, saying that when they came for him in the morning he'd be ready but he wanted to stay and meditate just now. He actually spent the time trying not to cry again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Poor Ranma I'm so mean to him and it actually gets worse before it gets better but remember we still have a dragon.


	28. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Ranma was up and going at 4am. The guards didn't believe it until he banged on the door and demanded to know if he was going to get to train or were they all still asleep.

He did an hour of Iyengar yoga then switched to power yoga.

When he started on katas the guards both groaned. He worked on individual attacks and defenses doing each posture over and over for another hour. Then he started working on combinations.

One of the main strengths of Any Thing Goes is that there are no formal combinations. That makes it possible to attack or defend from any attack or defense, the body doesn't have muscle memory to confuse it.

As he worked he went from simple two and three form combinations to combinations of twenty forms or more. He worked on combinations for two hours then he did tai che to cool off.

All together he'd been exercising for more than five hours without a break and it was now 9:00 a.m.

"Lord in heaven. I never saw such a thing, that guy has been at it for over four hours without a break and he's barely worked up a sweat."

"Hey guys. I'm done for this morning. Can I get a shower before breakfast? I think I kinda stink."

Ranma felt as good as could be expected. He was a bit nervous as he didn't know what to expect. He'd decided to just ask for what he wanted and settle for what he could get. {Plan for the worst, hope for the best and cope with what you get.}

"Breakfast is just about over, in fact you might not make it. But we'll see that you eat. You're new so you can get away with it once. Come on, we got to get these cuffs on you."

Ranma stood still as the men snapped cuffs on his wrists and ankles. The chains were heavy and the leg irons had a long chain between them, the hand cuffs were fastened to the belt, but not to each other so it wasn't as bad as it might have been. Of course Ranma was going to have to be very careful not to snap the chains like string. He'd said he'd cooperate and he meant it.

Breakfast was interesting, at least for the guards and cooks.

Ranma was led into the mess just as they were getting ready to break down. So the cooks just let Ranma have whatever he wanted that was left over. He took all the leftover bacon and the scrambled eggs too. There were some pancakes and French toast and he ate all that as well. Then he proceeded to drink a gallon of milk and a quart of orange juice.

"Hey, that was pretty good. I'm full for a while. What can I do now? I don't want to go back to my cell if I don't have to."

"Well, you can go to the common room, guys play cards and board games, watch tv. If you have a player you can't have in your cell, you can listen to it. If you go back to your cell, we won't lock you in.

"I've been told by Buck that you have a test and you have to go to your cell between four and seven to study for it. So what do you want to do?"

The guard who had spoken was old enough to be Ranma's dad but seemed a lot more responsible.

"I'd like to go to the common room. I don't feel like trying to study for a calculus test just yet. Thanks."

Ranma thanked the guard as he caught Ranma by the arm before he tripped. It was hard to walk in leg irons especially when he was trying not to hit the end of the chain and break it. It was about a foot shorter than his natural stride.

Ranma looked around at the common room, he was approaching this as if it was an attack on an objective instead of a social situation.

"Can I watch TV with you guys? I'll just . . . "

Ranma ran down quickly as he saw the looks on the faces of the men sitting around the TV. They all looked like they had bitten into something nasty.

"Shit, he's just a kid. Here sit down in this chair."

One of the men vacated a straight-backed chair and shoved it toward Ranma.

"Thanks, Mister. What are you watching?"

Ranma glanced up at the tv on the wall.

"We have our own station in case you didn't know. This time of day they play local Nerima news and weather, we like to kinda keep up with the local poop."

Just then the News Announcer started on what she called a Human Interest story. About Ranma {damnit}everything that he had done was splashed all over the screen. She put the worst twist she could on it, emphasizing the treason charges and implying that Ranma had collapsed half a building on purpose, as well as practically saying out right that he'd hit Steven just because he thought he could get away with it.

Downs was portrayed as a much put upon visiting agent from some other country.

Ranma just sat through the whole show and after it was over he started to get up and leave.

As he levered himself to his feet, the show turned to some footage from that night. It showed Ranma walking out of the black mouth of the tunnel he'd dug himself, like some filthy devil from the nether regions, a black scowl on his face and dirt and blood all over.

Everybody in the room started cheering, whooping and hollering. He got several pats on the back and when the tv showed him slugging Steven the room went quiet for about three seconds then everyone started laughing.

"Hey kid, that was great. I never saw Steven look so surprised in my life."

Then one of the men asked the question that everyone wanted to.

"Hey, if you're that strong, how can those irons hold you? Can't you just break them?"

Ranma raised his hand and examined the chain dangling from the cuff.

"Yeah. I could. But where's the point? They're already scared of me, they don't want me to get hurt or hurt anyone. I'm stayin' here and servin' my time so I don't lose the best home I'll ever have. So I let them chain me and I try really hard not to break them. Anyone else have a question?"

Ranma hoped he wasn't making a mistake by taking these men into his confidence. They were prisoners just like he was and he'd heard about military stockades from Rio and Pete, who both admitted to spending time in them. From them he'd learned that the prisoners usually kept as many secrets form the MP's as possible.

"Yeah, what are you doing in Department 13 at your age?"

So Ranma sat back down and endured a quizzing that took most of an hour, every man had a question and Ranma knew that if he was going to live with these men for 90 days he'd have to answer as many questions as he could stand. They asked every question there was and at the end of the hour one of the men, who looked more like a teacher or clerk that anything else, sent them on their way

"Ok, guys the poor kid is starting to show grill marks, give him a break. He's practically told you his life story. Go on, take a hike." He made shooing motions.

As the men started to move away, Ranma realized that they were leaving him to the tv.

"Hey! That's not fair. I'll go. I still . . . shit . . . calculus test. Damnit I still have a test to take and I have to study for it."

At that, the question he'd been hoping not to have to answer was asked.

"Un calculus test? . . . Just how fuckin' old are you?"

Ranma clenched his fists, he couldn't reach his pigtail without breaking the chains and so he just clenched his teeth and mumbled, "Sixteen . . . don't make a big deal. Please?"

But at that little piece of news all hell broke loose, a bunch of lonely, cooped up, protective men {most soldiers are in the military because they have a well developed need to protect} found out that the newest prisoner wasn't even old enough to drink legally.

Guards came running at the uproar. Finding that it only seemed to be a swearing riot, they demanded to know what was going on. When they heard what the problem was they rather heatedly called the speaker a liar.

"Well that's what he said. Look at him. He looks like my nephew. Better check the records."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

McIntosh called a meeting of as many guards and support people as could get there. He flatly told them that they weren't to give Ranma any special treatment, he was a dangerous prisoner and the only reason he hadn't been kicked out was he was desperately needed.

"I don't understand exactly why we need him so much but even the top dogs have called me trying to impress me with how necessary it is to keep him here. We'll cope with him as best we can.

"One last thing. In my personal opinion he is just some kid who got caught up in political maneuvering among the powers that be. He seems like a good kid, so while his records indicate that he's dangerous as hell, I have a feeling that there is more to this than meets the eye. Be careful of him. Don't push him into doing something that will come back to bite us in the ass. Ok people, that's all, dismissed."

McIntosh, in an effort to understand things a little better, got hold of a school regulation book and nearly had a heart attack.

"Punishment for attacking a civilian; 10 lashes, insubordination to a teacher; 15 lashes . . . fuck . . . leaving compound without permission; 20 lashes.

"Danmit, what kind of hell hole is that place. No wonder that kid is so hard. They . . . and . . . "McIntosh threw the book at the wall and slammed out of his office, headed for the gym to work off some of his temper.

Buck, hearing the door slam, went in to find out what the problem was. When he saw the book on the floor, he naturally picked it up to put it away. When he saw what it was, he sat down to read it too. His swearing brought Polk into the mix.

"We gotta protect that kid. Polk you got to find a way to convince McIntosh."

"I think we need to leave well enough alone. Don't embarrass the kid by singling him out. You know how kids that age are. We'll just have to make sure that every man in here knows what happens to anyone who gives that kid a hard time"

Buck thought about it and then reluctantly nodded, he had a brother about that age and shuddered to think what might happen, but knew also that Polk was right. Too much help would put Ranma in as much difficulty as not enough.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma decided to go to the gym instead of studying {I'm never gonna figure out that calculus. I'm sunk.}

The guards unchained him at the door saying that, as there was no one there, he could use the equipment without them in his face.

Ranma rubbed his right wrist. The cuff kept pinching his skin between it and his bracelet.

"Kid, you gotta do something about that bracelet, I know it has a curse and you can't take it off. But couldn't you shove it up your arm or something? You're gonna have a hell of a bruise other wise."

Ranma frowned at the bracelet.

"I don't know, it seems to be fairly flexible. I can try."

So Ranma started slowly pushing the bracelet up his arm, it obediently stretched until he had it pushed up under his sleeve where it settled around his biceps.

McIntosh, who had walked in unnoticed, watched this exchange with relief.

All the guards had taken Ranma under their collective wing and, while McIntosh thought that was a good thing, it also worried him. What if Ranma got out of hand? Would they be able to do what had to be done? Or would they choke?

McIntosh sighed, he wanted to punch someone, preferably whoever had written that double damned rule book.

He looked at Ranma out of the corner of his eye, then he decided, he'd said take him at face value but that was to protect his people from a possibly psychotic inmate. However, he could and would take chances with himself.

"Here Saotome. Hold the heavy bag for me will you? I don't like it jumping around. It rolls on me too much." McIntosh pointed to the heavy bag and then began pulling on gloves.

"Ok, what do I do? I don't use punching bags much."

Now Ranma is a very smart person. He realized that the Captain was trying to get to know him and he was more than willing to cooperate.

Ranma held the bag as McIntosh punched it.

He wondered if the man had had an accident or something to make him so weak, then he realized that for a normal the Captain was fairly strong. He wondered at the frailty of normals. It was just plain scarey. They threw themselves into combat with a disregard for their fragility that made him reconsider some of his attitudes.

"Saotome I need to talk to you about the rule book I got from Steven. . . . "At Ranma's nod he continued in what he hoped was a calm voice. "You won't have to worry about that kind of shit here. We're run on the American system. You may wind up in solitary, but I doubt it. But we don't whip or beat our prisoners."

Ranma blinked for a moment looking very like an owl.

"Well, that's good I guess. But I really don't see what the problem is. Steven doesn't abuse his authority. He really takes it easy. I mean Pop hit me harder for forgetting to duck than Steven did when he . . . "at the look on McIntosh's face he snapped his mouth shut.

"I don't understand how you can talk about being beaten like that. Like it was an everyday thing."

"Well, it kinda was, even my girl friend got hers. It's not that big a deal. I heal quick."

Ranma's jaw fell at the look of pure unadulterated fury directed at the ceiling by McIntosh who seemed to be having trouble deciding exactly what he wanted to do. He finally started punching the heavy bag like a lunatic. Ranma held it until the man ran out of steam and calmed down.

"I don't know what I did to make you so mad but I'm sorry. If you tell me what it was I won't do it again."

Ranma decided that apologizing couldn't hurt anything, after all the man seemed to be mad on his behalf somehow.

"Besides when they sentenced me from your courts they did say one punishment was a flogging." Ranma glanced askance at McIntosh who ground his teeth so hard they squeaked. "I think I'd rather be flogged."

"What the hell kind of life have you had that you would even consider such a thing." McIntosh looked like he was going to explode.

"Well, it would be a lot more convenient. Damnit, don't look at me like that. It would be. I heal quick. Thirty lashes takes about ten, fifteen minutes; then clean up an hour depending on how picky they are. Two or three days to recover and it's all over, but 90 days is a long time . . . . oh well, make your bed and lie in it. "

McIntosh dragged his gloves off, threw them into a corner and left at a trot, swearing all the way.

The kid wasn't psychotic, he wasn't sure exactly what he was to discuss being flogged so calmly.

Ranma looked after the guy and muttered, "Well it is. It's not like I'd enjoy it, but it _is_ over quicker. Wimp!"

Ranma went to the treadmill, set it for 10 miles and started running.

A guard stuck his head in the door and yelled over the racket the over-stressed treadmill was making. "Hey, when you're through wearing that 'mill out, Captain wants you in his office. He said to tell you, no hurry."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

McIntosh picked Buck and Polk up on the way back to his office. He hated it when things moved this fast, he was a methodical type of person and liked having time to worry at things, but when he had to move fast he could.

"Saotome is coming in in a little while. I want to hear what you two have been sitting on. I realize that you both think that I'm some kind of book junkie. But if the rules need bending for a good reason I can and will make pretzels of them. The security of this stockade and the safety of all my people is my first priority. My ambivalent feelings are causing me problems. I need input from you both."

When Buck told him about the 'rope a dope' incident, he just gapped, deciding to find out later how long that had been going on.

Then Polk produced his file with all the pictures he'd taken and watched as both men had the same reaction he'd had when he'd seen it.

"How the hell do you get scars like that and don't tell me by being whipped. Who the hell whips anyone anymore. Shit. No wonder that kid is so messed up. It's . . . .it's "

Ranma walked right into it. He tapped on the door and stuck his head in.

"Uh. Captain you wanted me? I'm sorry it took me so long but I wanted to finish my run and take a shower. I hope I didn't keep you waiting. Sorry."

He found three grown men looking at him like he might explode or something.

"What? What'd I do? I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

The looks on their faces scared Ranma, they had the same furious look, all three of them, that Genma had when he'd royally screwed up on a kata. That always led to trouble, extra exercises being the least of it.

"Stop it. You didn't do anything wrong and I'm beginning to believe it when I'm told you got railroaded. We didn't get a bio on you and we have to have it. So start talking. Where did you get those scars that don't show? And that really weird note that you're a girl? What kinda crap is that."

Ranma groaned, "Aa, Demo . . . Chikushou. Shimatta! Konoyarou! I just hate talking about it."

But he took a deep breath and started talking. Telling them everything he felt they needed to know. By the time he was finished he was getting the looks he hated. All big eyes and sorry I didn't know.

"Still didn't explain the girl note. And that's the one I really want to hear about."

So Ranma just fished the bracelet out of his sleeve and changed for them.

"Oh. . . . My . . . God. I don't fuckin' believe it. That is so freaky."

Let's get one thing clear now. I . . . Am . . . Not . . . A. . . . Freak. I'm not a sideshow and I don't change on request. If there isn't a good reason I stay a guy. I was born a boy and I stay that way. Ok? If you don't have any more questions, I think I better try to study."

Buck was the first to react. Smacking Polk in the back of the head he snarled, "Ass hole."

Then turning to Ranma who had changed back while he was talking, "I . . . He didn't mean it that way. It's just kind a weird. You have to admit that. And it . . . damn, I'm shutting up before I stick both feet in my mouth."

Ranma couldn't help but smirk.

"You shoulda seen Steven, he just about pissed himself. Told me I was hot. Look, I'm sorry if I was a shit. I just get tired of the same ol' same ol' and you guys go over your notes and I really do have to study"

Ranma made a disgusted face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next few days went well, all the men in the stockade seemed to have adopted Ranma, even the one's that would have wanted to fight with a George and most of them had fits at the sight of Ranma in transports.

He spent most of the morning training, to the amazement of the entire stockade lunch was also interesting as some of the men got up a pool on how much and what he'd eat. Afternoons were spent in the common room but he usually left early as he kept getting ugly looks, even from men who were polite to him everywhere else. He even tried to study for his test.

Conversations flitted all over the place.

"Did you see him this morning?"

"Yeah I hate guarding him, makes me feel like a . . . a sadistic bastard. Ya know? Especially when he has that look on his face. Like when he got that thing he was working on right. If he slugged someone, they needed it. That's what I say"

"Shit! Did you hear him screaming last night. I wonder what the hell he was dreaming about."

"I got to read some of his bio so we would know what was goin' on. I think he was dreaming about being sold. I so want to get my hands on his old man.

"I really wanted to . . . I don't know hug him or something. But you can't get near him. The jacket says not to touch him and I'd rather not get my head torn off."

"He is the sweetest kid. But strong, not so much physically as mentally. He won't see any of his friends. Even though it's tearing him up."

"Yeah, I heard him talking to you. Doesn't want to upset them. Shit, I'd be clinging to every buddy I had for dear life. I'd want them to visit every day as long as they would stay. But not him, thinks so much of that one called Sunny that I heard he nearly threw up when he turned her away.

"Keepin' that little kid chained up like an animal. They make me sick. I'm one of the worst ass-  
holes here and all they do to me is tell me to keep my nose clean. Just sucks. What's up with that?"

"Don't know man, but Ron Rio is part of his secondary team and he told me if I didn't see to it that the kid got taken proper care of he'd have my gut's for boot laces."

The entire compound was ready to riot. Ranma moved through the mess, oblivious to the trouble brewing.

"Steven, I am going to kick your ass. You've unloaded a landmine in this compound. One with the sweetest smile you'd ever want to see, he's got every goon in the place mothering him like an orphan kitten. Whoever wrote that jacket didn't have a brain in their head."

Steven rubbed his neck, he'd known there was going to be trouble in the stockade. Ranma looked his age now, and when he wasn't being an arrogant little prick, he did have a really sweet smile.

"Look, I'm sorry. That shit Downs wrote the file before they jacked him up. Because of politics, Ranma's stuck there. I didn't think he'd cause problems. He's a good kid, I got a look at the jacket you got. I'll send over his records from here. "

McIntosh kicked at his trash can, "Ranma's not causing trouble, it's everyone else. I've got grown up men, vets with supposedly hearts of stone, babying a boy with such an indomitable will that it's positively scary.

"He hates being cuffed with a flaming passion but he stands there and lets them do it. It's only been five days but I've got near riots on my hands and insubordination among the guards. I wish you could just come and take him home with you. Why don't you send his friends to see him?"

"Damnit, Mac. He won't see them. It's driving me crazy. I've had each and every one of them and all his secondary team in here having fits. They tell him they are coming and he says no."

"I know that he said he won't see them, but I think it would be good for him. If they come, I don't think he has the heart to turn them away. I know I certainly will do all I can to get him to see them. Oh fuck what a mess. What is going on Steven?"

Steven didn't have the heart to tell McIntosh exactly what had happened.

Ranma was paying for Department 13's new sanctions with his freedom. Because he was willing to do what he did, the investigations into abuses of Department 13 personnel were on going. Almost everyone who borrowed their people seemed to believe that they were expendable, not looking beyond getting rid of the current problem. Now it was all coming to light. And the financing problems were going the way of all bad things. They were being funded in full by concerns with top priorities, all very top drawer and hush-hush.

He'd still rather have Ranma home and safe but that couldn't be until he served his sentence. Ninety days was going to be an eternity.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette (Sunny)

Why? I don't understand he didn't do anything wrong if he smacked Steven he deserved it I took care of him and Ranma pulled his punches big time he didn't even have any broken bones. When I get my hands on someone in charge over there I'm going to give them a piece of my mind. I hate this I just hate it I was just gettin him so he didn't flinch every time someone tried to touch him unexpectedly.

Maa Yao sighed. "Sunny don't go over to the stockade and start something. Ranma's going to have hard enough time of it without his girl friend starting a . . . thing. Look when it's time he'll let you visit. Then you have to be reassuring and gentle with him. He's going to need all the support you can give him."

"Damnit I love him so much Ninety days is forever I'm gonna die." Sunny cried herself to sleep again that night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette (Kuno and Ryouga)

"Kuno, I know you want to help him but sending him a bunch of special stuff isn't the way. He'll just have trouble with the other men envying him. When it's time, we can visit him and talk to him, find out what he really needs. I need to see him as his therapist but they won't let me see him either. They say he's got a guy in the stockade. I'd like to meet the man. I don't think he's going to be able to do much for Ranma."

"Ryouga, stop pacing you'll wear out the carpet. I didn't think about that, all I want is to let Ranma know that we haven't abandoned him. You know how proud he is. He's going to think that we won't like him anymore. Or he doesn't want us to see him in prison clothes."

Kuno grabbed his hair suddenly and shoved his bangs out of widened eyes.

"Damn or chains. I bet they chain him up. He's going to be a target for every ego and rep in the place."

"I wish you hadn't given me that specific image. I won't sleep a wink."

Ryouga and Kuno both sat on the sofa and stared at the TV not seeing a thing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The odd vignettes here are purely for my fun. They don't really move the story. If I left out one you want to read review and I'll think about revising.


	29. Chapter 30

Disclaimer. I don't own Ranma.

Chapter 30

Ranma walked out into the exercise yard. He'd had to adopt a funny, rolling gate. Walking pigeon toed so that he wouldn't trip over the chain or break it. The chain was just strong enough that he met some resistance, if he was careful he wouldn't break it. He wasn't about to let them know he could get loose. He needed the sense of security he got from the knowledge that he could get free if he really needed to.

One of the MP's guarding Ranma pointed to the field beyond the fence.

"Look there. I wonder who those guys are. Don't they know it's against the rules to be that close to the fence? I'll have to call the perimeter guards and have them go out and run those dummies off."

Ranma looked where the man had pointed and saw all his friends standing or sitting around what he thought was a telescope or high-powered spotter's scope. They were so obviously watching him that he had to laugh a little before he felt like crying. He missed his friends so much that it almost made him physically sick.

Ranma closed his eyes and when he opened them he had 'long sight', he could control a lot of things about his body including his eyesight. So he got a good look at Sunny, she was sitting on Rio's shoulder watching for him and he could see the tears running down her face. Everyone else looked just as sad. All the men in his secondary team had long faces and Kuno and Ryouga looked mad enough to eat nails. He knew that Leela and Danny were both still in the infirmary.

He walked to where he was sure that they could see him and turned to the MP.

"I need my hands free for a minute. No funny stuff, I promise. Please?"

"OK. What are you going to do?" The MP unlocked the cuffs and let them dangle.

Ranma raised both hands over his head, clasping them together. Then he made the signal for 'bug out'. He watched as Rio signaled 'No'.

"They ain't gonna go. I can't believe they're just sittin' out there watchin' me. That's just dumb."

The MP shook his head. His partner had gone inside to call the perimeter guard, so he just took Ranma's hand in his. Adjusting the cuff on one wrist he bit his lip as he tried to figure out how to explain to this kid how his friends felt.

"Gimme your other hand . . . Look kid, this is none of my business but your friends need to see you. Even more, in some ways, than you need to see them. They need to see that you're ok. And believe me when I say that you need them more than you know."

Ranma clenched his teeth, "I don't want them to see me like this. I don't want Sunny to remember me in chains. I'm lucky that she even want's to come here at all."

"Boy, you better get your head screwed on straight. Your friends want to see you because you need the support. Without the support of your friends you're not gonna make it 90 days without goin' outta your mind. You're not the kind to take confinement well. I can tell."

The MP knew people, he'd been in this line of work for a long time and Ranma was one of those people who didn't take kindly to being locked up.

Yeah, I hate bein' locked up. But what'm I supposed to do. Make a run for it? Where would I go? I gotta stay here. So I just have to take it. You don't know all the circumstances, but I'll tell ya this. More counts on me than I like to think about."

Ranma made a decision, finally admitting to himself that he really needed to see his friends and so he told the MP to let the Warden know that he would like to see his friends.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sunny jumped up and grabbed Ranma. He looked embarrassed as hell.

"Sunny, hey, don't cry. They won't let ya come back if ya cry all over me. Please, Koi. Don't! I'd rather ya slapped me than see ya cry. "

Ranma held Sunny as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Next time you won't see me I'll . . . you just better see me that's all." Sunny was pulling at Ranma's shirt. "Where are you hurt? Let me see. I'll heal it."

Ranma grabbed Sunny's hands and stopped her from stripping him right there in the visitor's room.

"Sunny, I healed up by myself days ago. It's been almost two weeks." Ranma oof'ed obligingly as Sunny swatted him on the shoulder.

"Yes you fiend I know it's been almost two weeks, eleven days twelve hours you want to know the minutes? Snot! I ought to do something awful to you,beast."

Ranma sighed, Sunny was really mad at him and he didn't blame her. "Sunny, please don't be mad at me." He got down on one knee, clasped his hands together and looked at her with his best puppy dog eyes look. "I'm really, really sorry. Forgive me? . . . Please? . . . Koi?"

Sunny looked at Ranma and gave up. When he looked at her like that she couldn't stay mad at him, no matter what he'd done. She put her arms around him and sighed.

"You scared me to death and you always look so sad in the yard I would like to know what you're doing letting them chain you up like that don't they know those chains won't hold you if you don't . . . "

Ranma kissed Sunny, a very good way to shut her up before she gave away something he didn't want her to

"Shh. Don't let them know. I need to be able to get free if I need to. I'm so nervous here I'm about to jump outta my skin as it is. If they really hold me, I'm sunk. I won't make it." Ranma kept his voice low.

Sunny nodded. She understood so she just pushed Ranma into a chair and sat on his lap.

"Kiss me some more. We only get a few more minutes. The first visits are short. Don't ask me why, it has something to do with evaluations of some kind."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Conroy watched Ranma as he entered the room. He looked tired but he smiled at Conroy.

"Hey Sarg. What's up?"

"My temper. Damnit Ranma . . . You . . . "Conroy didn't know what to do first.

"Easy Sarg, don't pop your cork. It's ok. You know what's on the line. I'm ok. I been in lots worse places. I get enough to eat, they don't even want me fightin' and they're not gonna beat me. What more could I want?"

Ranma couldn't believe it. Conroy looked like he was going to bust something. Ranma had thought that no one would even care that much as long as he wasn't being abused.

"Un? Your freedom? Look, we all know what went on. We're all so proud of you we don't know what to do. You gave up part of your life so the higher ups would investigate Downs and his kind. I don't even want to think about the lives you're saving. Damn, I don't know of anyone else in the world who would do that. I know I don't have that kind of nerve. I don't know what's goin' on in your head. Why don't you want to see any of us? I'd be wantin' everyone I knew to visit as much as they'd let them."

"Frankly, Sarg, I feel kinda' foolish. It's not as if I don't deserve it. I did slug Steven . . . twice. But I don't like you guys seein' me in transports. And these slops are just plain embarasin' "

Ranma ducked his head and stared at the table top.

"Well, at least they fit. Every time I wind up in the stockade they can't seem to find pants long enough for me. And the shirts are always too big."

Conroy didn't mind admitting he'd spent some time in a stockade here and there.

"You? Sargent-keep-your-nose-clean Conroy? Well . . . hell."

Ranma blinked once and then started to snicker.

"What the hell is so funny?"

Conroy put on his most put-upon look, trying to look indignant and only looking flustered.

"I'm sorry, here I was thinking ya'd . . . not exactly look down on me. But be disappointed or somethin' and you're tellin' me you've been in the stockade too?'

"Well, yeah. Me and Rio and Pete. We've been together like, forever, and we're not the nicest guys around. So a few D and D's, DOPP and like that. So who'm I to look down on you. You're in here for a reason that makes sense. Instead of gettn' plastered and breakin' up a bar like us"

"Tell the rest of the guys to come when they can. I give up. I need to see ya more than I thought I would . . . just like that MP said. If ya kinda draw straws or somethin' I can have visitors every day and ya don't all have to wonder who's visitin' and if ya only come two or three a day I won't have to spend hours in transports. They'll cut me loose for visitors. If I'm in the yard or the common room they're keepin' me cuffed so some idiot wantin' a rep don't start a fight with me. And, in a way, I'm glad. If someone jumps me, I'm in real trouble. I'm so jumpy I'd probably really hurt 'im . . . at the least. So instead of bein' a proud fool, I'll be the opposite and just be glad ya want to see me at all."

Ranma stood up because the MP was already at the door. Conroy surprised Ranma by pulling him into a sudden rough hug, slapping him on the back.

"Well, see you in a coupla days. Rio's next, he'll be here tomorrow. Want anything? If ya want somethin', tell your visitor and the next guy'll bring it. By"

Ranma let the MP manacle him as he watched Conroy leave.

"Damnit, kid, I don't know how they can think you're a nut job. I've never dealt with anyone so cooperative before. If you're good for a few more days I bet the Warden lets us quit this shit."

"Yeah, then some jackass wantin' a rep starts a fight with me and gets hurt. I'm real jumpy. This place makes me nervous. I'd probably kill them before I knew what I was doin' then I'd really be in a mess. I don't like killin' people."

Ranma didn't look at the MP, he was watching his feet so he wouldn't trip, so he didn't see the look on his face. Don't like killing people. Excuse me?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Sarg? Close your eyes. I don't want you to see this coming. You'll duck it."

"No damnit Rio you're not slugin' me. Ranma'll have a fit. He specifically said not."

"Yeah? If I punch ya what's he gonna do?"

"Don't think I want to know, he looks really stressed out. I wouldn't push him if I was you."

"Shit!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Saotome, you've got a visitor."

The MP knew that Ranma had said he would see his friends, so he didn't even think about telling Ranma that his visitor was his mother.

Ranma looked in the visitors room and then shook his head at the MP.

"No. Leave 'em."

"What? Ok."

The MP just walked off without uncuffing Ranma, shaking his head. He didn't understand this kid at all.

Ranma entered the room, leg irons rattling. He sat down at the steel-topped table. It was heavy, made of a solid wood top covered with a sheet of steel. Like all visitors rooms the table was bolted to the floor.

Saotome Nodoka sat opposite her son. She examined him, not liking what she saw. Ranma was wearing a BDU uniform. It was neatly pressed but the shirt had a big P on the back and smaller ones on each sleeve over the biceps. The pants had a P on each leg. He was also wearing leg irons and handcuffs.

"I am ashamed of you, boy. Treason against the empire. You bring shame to the family. . . . NO don't speak. I understand the charges were dismissed but that doesn't make any difference. You know what you did."

Ranma watched his mother as she reached into her purse and drew out a tanto. She put it on the table between them. Then she stood up and gazed at him sternly.

"Now you will make reparation. You will wash away our shame."

Ranma watched as his mother turned and left without a backward glance.

He reached out and picked up the tanto with a shaking hand. He just sat looking at it for a moment. Then he unsheathed it. Turning it in his hand, he watched the light dance on the edge.

He felt the rage building; he momentarily scrambled for a reason not to lose his temper and failed.

With a roar of rage he jammed the tanto into the table top by half its 18" length. He braced himself on the table half bent over, breathing hard. broken handcuff chains dangling. Then he slammed his fists down on the table top, leaving dents the shape of his hands.

"I don't believe she could do that to me. SHE LEFT ME!! Damn her. Damn her to hell!"

Ranma snapped the tanto off between the hilt and the table top, breaking a hundred-year-old, thousand layer piece of steel like a straw.

"You fucking bitch"

Ranma dropped to his knees sobbing.

"What the hell just happened. I didn't think we needed an observer with Saotome. He's not the type. Review the tape and find out what went down."

Polk left the room at a hard trott headed for Ranma. He missed being first by a hair. Buck got in the door ahead of him.

"Hey, Saotome, talk to me. What the hell happened here? What's that in your hand?"

Buck could only see part of what Ranma was clutching to his chest. "Why don't ya give me that?"

Gunnie Polk got behind Ranma and gently pulled him into his arms.

Both men couldn't understand why a visit from his mother could turn a cheerful, cooperative boy into this grief stricken sobbing ball of misery.

"Geeze, he's got a knife! Where the hell did he get that?"

Polk gently tugged Ranma's arm out of the huddle he'd turned into. Buck massaged Ranma's fingers until he let go of the hilt with its 5 inches of broken blade. When he went to put it on the table, he saw the rest of the blade.

"Shit she gave him this and he broke it. Why would she give him . . ."

Ranma interrupted him with a soft moan.

"Noooo. She left me. She wouldn't . . . My own mother. Oh, shit . . . shit . . . Please . . . don't. Let me go. I can't stand this."

Ranma clutched at Polk who was trying to turn him around so he could see him.

"No don't look at me. I can't stand it. I don't believe she could do that to me. "

Ranma covered his face with his hands. He knew he was getting hysterical and he couldn't help it.

Buck saw what was happening and unknowingly took his life in his hands. He jerked Ranma out of Polk's arms and hauled him to his feet, then he slapped his face.

"Stop that! You'll make yourself sick. What the hell is going on? Why did she give you a knife? And why did you break it? That was a pretty expensive antique piece of steel."

Ranma shoved Buck away and fell into a defensive stance, snapping the leg irons like string. Buck held his hands out, turning pale, Ranma was on a razors edge and the wrong move would push him over into violence that they weren't prepared to deal with.

"Hey . . . easy . . . look at me! It's just ol' Bucky-boy. Calm down and talk to me."

Polk moved around to let Ranma see both of them. They had to get him calm before McIntosh decided to crack down, Ranma was right on the verge of a disciplinary fault.

"Damn her. She left me. You don't understand. She walked out and left me."

Ranma was still nearly incoherent, torn between grief and rage, all he could do was swear and sputter.

"Ok?! She gave ya a knife, which we'll get her for, and left. Big deal! Other than passing you contraband, no big. You even broke it, which is in your favor. You're not in any trouble, anyway, so why all the fuss?"

Ranma looked at the two Americans and realized they had no clue what she'd done or why he was so upset.

Finally managing to partially calm himself, he walked over to the table and in one burst of adrenalin draining rage he yanked the table off its bolts and slammed it into the wall, breaking it into bits.

"Ok. Ok. I'm as calm as I'm going to get. Don't mind me if I scream a bit."

"That fuckin bitch,, who called herself my mother disowned me and gave me an honor knife. Then she walked out on me." Ranma drew a deep breath now they'd understand. They didn't.

"McIntosh, who was fascinated with Samurai, had an idea. He'd been standing in the hall listening. When Ranma had gone off, he'd been called and gotten there in time to hear Ranma say he was 'calm'.

He walked into the room, dismissed the broken table as unimportant, and went straight to Ranma who was now shaking like a leaf in a high wind.

"Come with me. Come on. You're not in trouble. I just want to get you somewhere else. You don't need to be here. We'll go to the break room down the hall."

Motioning to Buck behind his back, he continued, "We'll get you some tea and something to calm you. Now come on."

McIntosh got Ranma settled in an over stuffed chair with a cup of tea. Letting Ranma sip on the tea he called Steven

"You better get over here. Ranma's just had a real bad shock"

"What happened? He was fine yesterday"

"I'll let him tell you. I'm not sure what it's all about and he doesn't know me well enough to talk to me about this. Just get here will ya. He's about to go amok."

"I don't think I better. He's pretty pissed at me right now. I'll find Kuno or Ryouga and send them. Just take care of him til they get there." Steven groaned, this was all they needed just now.

Ranma realized that none of the Americans understood what Nodoka had done. Maybe McIntosh had an idea.

"Captain McIntosh. I'm sorry I flipped out" Ranma drew in a deep shuddering breath. "I see none of ya understand. Where's Polk and Buck?" They came in from their hovering in the hall. "Ok I'll try to make this simple. My mother has an old-fashioned sense of honor. She found out that one of the charges brought against me was; treason no matter if it was dismissed or not, she felt the family honor was tarnished so in order to cleanse it she brought me a tanto. A special kind called an honor knife. She expected me to commit seppuku" all three men gasped "Yeah, but you don't understand the worst. She left me to do it alone"

McIntosh suddenly gaged and left the room.

"Ok, so she left ya alone. I understand you would never actually do it but a quick stab to the heart . . . I'm lost kid"

Ranma clutched the tea cup to his belly, suddenly shaking again.

"Not to the heart, the gut. She expected me to cut my guts out and sit looking at them til I died. She left me without a Kaishaku. Someone who would decapitate me before I suffered too much. Without a kaishaku it takes a long time to die. Up to 12 hours of agony . . . and I'm not much of a screamer."

Polk sat down on the floor, missing the chair he'd been aiming at. Buck found out that he knew more swear words and ways to combine them than he realized.

Ranma just cried some more.

McIntosh came back in with two white pills and a glass of milk.

"Here, boy. Take these, they'll help you calm down. Just a mild sedative."

Ranma obediently took the pills remarking, "Won't help. I'm practically immune to the stuff."

"Not this. Those medical jonnies have been working on it. That's specially formulated for Georges. Just relax and give it time to work"

They took Ranma back to his cell and left him with the kindly command to get some rest.

Ranma lay down in his lonely cell and wished for his friends.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven mean while was talking to Ryouga.

"Ryu, you better get over to the stockade A-sap. Ranma's having some kind of crisis."

Just then Kuno ran in. "One of my secondary team is in the stockade and called me. You'll never believe it. Nodoka brought Ranma an 'honor knife' and left him."

Ryouga just froze. It took him a second to process what Kuno had said. Then he let out a scream. He screamed so loud that the windows shattered.

Steven just left the room snarling at Kuno to "Get Ryu over there before Ranma does something violent."

Kuno grabbed Ryu by the arm. "Come on, lets go, we need to be there, not here. Put your feelings aside and move it."

Kuno and Ryouga jumped out the broken window and headed for the stockade. Instead of taking the time to go around to the gate, they jumped over the fence and smashed through the back door of the stockade building.

They ran into an MP, who was sprinting for the noise.

"Saotome Ranma, where is he?"

Kuno stabbed the man with his most arrogant glower.

"Huh? You can't just break into a . . ." the MP ran down suddenly. No one broke into a stockade.

"Where's Ranma?" Ryouga grabbed the MP by the shirt and shook him.

The patter of more feet headed their way made them close up. Standing back to back, they looked ready to take on the whole compliment of MP's headed their way.

Polk had been ready for Ranma's friends to show up but not this way. He'd expected upset boys coming to the desk. Not these fierce warriors breaking down doors.

"Easy! Stand down, guys. I'll take care of this. Go back to your positions."

The MP's left with some muttering from men wanting to know what was going on.

Polk took Ryouga and Kuno to Ranma's cell and fumbled for keys, Ryouga didn't wait for him to find the right one. He just tore the door off the hinges and tossed it aside.

Ranma hadn't even noticed the noise, granted it had come from the other side of the building, but he usually noticed loud bangs and such. He looked up as the door was torn off its hinges.

"Hey! Ryouga what are you doing? You can get in real trouble doing that."

Ranma forgot about himself, his misery came second to his friends.

"Ranma damnit. You talk to me. What the hell happened? Kuno says Nodoka left you with a tanto and no kaishaku. You're shittin' me, right?"

Ryouga hauled Ranma into his arms and held on. Here Ranma had endured one of the most incredible experiences of a lifetime and he was worrying about them getting into trouble.

"Oh, Ryu I'm ok. The Warden gave me some of that new sedative. I feel pretty good." Ranma looked heavy eyed.

Ryouga turned his head, "Kuno, find out what they gave him. I don't want to be dealing with an unknown."

"OK. I haven't heard about any new sedative. And you know I keep up with all the new stuff. You think I better call Sunny."

Kuno headed out the door while Ryouga sat down on Ranma's bed.

"Yeah. You better call Sunny. She'll snatch your head off if you don't."

They didn't need to call Sunny, the Compound Latrine-o-gram was working over time. Everyone and his dog was interested in Ranma, not only because he was a George, but also because everyone knew what he'd done for Department 13 in general. Never mind that many of them got a laugh out of him getting one over on Steven

"I want to know what you gave Ranma.I don't know of any new drug just for Georges." Sunny was ready to have McIntosh for lunch; giving Ranma an unknown or untested drug.

"I gave him two aspirin tablets and a glass of milk so the aspirin wouldn't upset his stomach." McIntosh looked at the girl bristling at him like an over protective fairy. "Ever heard of the placebo effect?"

Sunny blinked, then she grinned at him apologetically.

"Yeah, I hope it helped. I don't know what happened yet but I heard it really upset Ranma. Take me to him please. Oh! I'm his healer as well as his girl friend."

"Ok. But some guys named Ryouga and Kuno are with him already. They jumped the fence and busted down two doors to get to him." McIntosh led the way to Ranma's room.

McIntosh actually saw the door for the first time. It was crumpled up and torn half in two. It was also sticking out of the cinder block Back wall of the cell block.

"Well hell"

Sunny ignored the devastation completely, she couldn't have cared less if the entire building was smashed, all she was interested in was Ranma.

"Ranma . . . honey . . . Koibito. What the hell happened? All I know is that someone came to visit you and you got mad. That man gave you an unknown drug, but that's ok, because I know about it. What upset you? Oh"

While Sunny had been talking, Ranma had climbed into her lap like a cat Neko anyone and curled up, he'd started crying again. Now he couldn't seem to get stopped. Ryouga let Ranma go to Sunny but he kept a hand on him just in case. Kuno came back in just then and added himself to the huddle on the bed.

Sunny sat with Ranma on her lap, Kuno beside her on one side and Rouga on the other, the two boys were ready to pin Ranma down if he got violent, the broken chains dangling from his body left no question in their minds that the Stockade wasn't prepared to handle an angry Ranma

"Ran-chan, koi, what happened all I know is your mother came to visit and the next thing I hear is they're drugging you."

"Yes, I would like to hear this from your own lips. I have never heard of such a thing in more than seven hundred years. It's a disgrace."

Ryouga wondered if he shouldn't order three doses of the real thing, although a dose for him would kill a regiment and Kuno wasn't far behind.

Ranma repeated his story and watched as sweet, kind, gentle, Sunny turned into a raging fury. "I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna make her guts rot in her belly. When I get through with her, she'll think Kaishaku. That bitch." Sunny was headed for the door when Kuno got to her. All Ryouga and Ranma could do was stare

"Wow! . . . Sunny, calm down." Ranma dried his eyes and grabbed for Sunny. He calmed himself and took care of his girlfriend.

"Hey, everyone, it's ok. I was just really shocked. That stuff they gave me took hold. Come here." Ranma gathered his friends into a mutual hug.

They stayed that way for a long time, swaying gently, rocking each other and finding balance in the midst of chaos. Finally Ranma broke it off.

"Look guys, Sunny. I'm so beat I can't stand up anymore. I think the adrenalin crash is getting to me. I got to lie down. Kuno, if you get any more sour looking, you'll turn into a lemon. Why don't you take Ryouga back to the dorm? Ryu, man, thanks for coming so fast. I want to talk to you in the next couple a' days. The guy attached to the Stockade don't know me and he just looks at me."

Turning to Sunny, he held out his hands and when she took them, he kissed her knuckles and smiled that special smile he saved only for her.

"Little Miss Don't lose your temper. Where did that come from?" When Sunny opened her mouth to answer he put a finger against her lips. "Never mind. Don't bother with Mommy. She's not worth it. She'll get hers in the end. Go back to the dorm, come visit me as soon as you can. I'm going to sleep. Find out what that drug is. It really works good."

Sunny waited until Ranma was in bed, she tucked him in and kissed his cheek, then she left him.

"Your name Buck?" Sunny was in Bucks face.

"Yeah you don't remember me do you. I'm the rope guy."

"Oh, I remember you. Well, you better take better care of Ranma than you have been. He's still wearing the remains of those stupid chains. He needs to have them off as soon as possible."

Sunny shook her finger in Buck's face to emphasize her point. Buck wanted to get the shattered remains off Ranma too. However, the damage had been done.

"I want to know exactly how strong Saotome is. Once could be defective equipment but twice. I don't think so. We have a martial artist who is now on a hair trigger and who knows how long it will take him to truly calm down. He did a good job of faking it just now but he's twitching in his sleep and you know that's not a good thing. If someone starts anything with him, we're sunk. And we have a new batch coming in tomorrow after noon."

McIntosh knew he was being unfair to Ranma but Ranma had scared the shit out of him and he needed to know that he could control Ranma. He had to be in control of his stockade, if he wasn't, that meant the prisoners were and that caused riots. He really didn't need an Attica on his hands. So he called in the supernatural section. They told him anything that would actually hamper Ranma enough to be effective would be considered cruel and unusual. They also told him that Ranma was chained tighter than anyone could manage with physical restraints.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Steven, why do you hate me? What did I ever do to you? Damnit, I've got this boy here and I can't keep him restrained if I need to. What am I supposed to do?"

McIntosh was worried. He didn't want to be cruel to Ranma but he didn't want him running rampant all over the Compound when he was supposed to be confined to the Stockade.

"You don't need to do anything. Just talk to Ranma, tell him what your concerns are and why you do what you do. He's cooperative. Didn't he let you shackle him when he hates it so much it drives him crazy? Isn't he cooperating with the guards and everyone? Just talk to him. He's still mad at me but tell him I'm thinking of him and I'm sorry."

Steven hung up the phone, he wanted to be there for Ranma but he wouldn't force himself on the boy, he'd wait until Ranma asked for him. Then he'd be there like a shot. Damn I hope I can repair this somehow

Ranma woke up that morning a little late and decided to skip training for a day. He didn't skip very often but he decided after a day like yesterday he deserved a day off. So stretching and scratching, he allowed himself plenty of time to wake up. Then he threw the covers back and set his feet on the floor.

"Eeepp! What the hell happened to the door. Hey I didn't do that . . . did I. I don't remember."

Ranma stuck his head out the doorless opening and looked around. No one was about so he gathered up his toiletries and headed for the showers. He managed to get through the shower with the minimum of fuss except for the chains that smacked him. No one had remembered to take the broken remains of the transports off him, he decided to leave them alone.

At the mess hall he encountered his first inkling of trouble. Every guard in the place was looking at him like he was radioactive. Well, hell. This is going to get old real quick

Adding himself to the end of the line Ranma got a tray and sat down to eat. Luckily he had his back to a wall because the first thing that happened was a man grabbed his wrist.

"What the hell is that? What are you doing wearing a broken handcuff?"

Ranma retrieved his hand, pushed his tray away and picked the man up by his shirt. He shook him like a terrier shakes a rat.

"Don't touch me! Don't sneak up on me! Don't touch my food! Go away, leave me alone. I'm not in the mood for stupid questions and idiots wantin' to fight."

He slammed the man down on his feet so hard he staggered. There was a noisy scramble as men moved to give Ranma some space.

Ranma sat down and finished his breakfast. Then he went to the guard station.

"Take these cuffs off me. I'm tired of haulin' around a bunch of steel for no good reason. You ain't chainin me no more. You wanna, you gotta force me and frankly you can't. I wanna talk to McIntosh. Now."

The guard stifled his first impulse, which was to tell this suddenly arrogant little snot that he was the guard and not the prisoner, he just unlocked the cuffs and told Ranma he knew where the office was, so go there.

Ranma walked into McIntosh's office without knocking and got in on the tail end of McIntosh's conversation with Steven. McIntosh was sitting at his desk with the phone on speaker, eating with one hand and writing with the other.

"I'm here. Ya wanna chain me anymore ya gotta earn it. I'm tired a shuffelin' around tryin' not to break those stupid things. It's down right embarasin'. I tried to cooperate and I understand why ya want me in chains. I know I could hurt someone really bad if they jump me, but I just can't do it. Most of the guys in here are big, grown up guys, so my opinion is, if they're stupid enough to call me out, well, they're old enough to take the consequences. Ya listenin' ta me?'

Ranma stood in front of the desk and shook his fist in the Captains face. He was just plain mad, and tired of this whole travesty of justice where they used something that wouldn't even have gone anywhere to punish him for whistle blowing. I"d like to see Downs survive in here for two seconds.

"Saotome, will you calm down. After your mother and what not, I know you aren't in the mood for more silliness. So I've got a question for you. Steven and the head of supernatural both . . ."

"Supernatural! You fucker! You try magic on me and you'll really be sorry. I hate magic like poison. You wanna see outta control? I'll turn the Neko-kun loose on ya. There's one way to handle Neko-ken attacks. Run like hell and don't look back. Stupid asshole."

Ranma stopped talking because he'd run out of air. He stood panting, glaring at McIntosh like he wanted to turn Neko-kun on the spot.

McIntosh backed up clear to the wall. He'd never seen anything like it. He knew most people claimed not to be able to see Kirilian auras but he could and Ranma's was bright red, it extended from his body by a good foot and flickered like a flame. The gold sparkles flashing through it were pretty but they showed purity of intent. He'd never seen Ranma's aura before. Oh, shit! The boy doesn't leak, I never noticed that before. I've got to stop shutting down

"Calm down and let me finish. The head of Supernatural said he wouldn't do anything for me. Talked about cruel and unusual punishment, that sort of thing. And he and Steven both said that I already had a way to bind you as tightly as I needed to. I'm making a mess of this. I don't like dealing with stuff like this. I see auras and it's always scared me. I never noticed yours. I try to shut down as much as I can and ignore it. I guess I've got to back up and reconsider. But that being neither here nor there to the subject at hand. What was Steven talking about? How can I bind you? Your aura is so strong I think you could break an anchor chain."

Ranma considered, he was already busted so he might as well be honest with the man. He hoped being honest would reassure McIntosh, he wasn't regretting his outburst, but he knew it could cause him trouble. He wasn't going to put up with silly chains anymore, he'd tried cooperating and gotten no where so now he was going to try stubbornness combined with honesty

"I'm not sure exactly how heavy a chain it would take to hold me. There's the Neko-ken to consider. You can't stop that. Using that 'call' I can cut just about anything not heavily imbued with magic.and I mean really heavily. And you ain't puttin' magical chains on me. Ill kill ya if ya try."

"Easy. I already said they wouldn't make any. I just don't understand why. They're just chains."

McIntosh struggled to understand, he wouldn't be very happy about being chained up but to him it was better that getting in a series of fights.

Ranma took a deep breath and let it out through his nose. He paced for a minute then he decided. "Ok here's the deal. Ya can see auras. Can you manipulate yours at all?"

"Yes, a little. I've never done much with it. It scares me too much. But I'll try. I know I come off as a rigid person and I'm having real trouble here, you don't seem like a bad kid, but your records say otherwise, so I'm having a problem with what to do with you. My head says one thing and everything else says another. So I'm trusting you where my head says run."

"Well thanks so much. Ya better make up your mind soon because if ya don't, it'll all be over but the cryin'. My temper can only take so much and that crack about magic is really pushin' it. First I'll show ya why I hate magic, then I'll tell ya all ya have to do to keep me outta trouble."

Ranma cupped his hands and let some of his chi flow into them. "See the color of my aura? That's under my control and unfettered by magic. Now I'll show you what it looks like fettered. Don't touch it or you'll feel what I felt."

Ranma's unfettered aura was cool, actually a blue color, close to the color of his eyes. But it sparkled and moved like clear mountain lake water. Then he fettered it. Suddenly it was shot through with muddy grayish tendrils, tendrils which oozed through it as if seeking his very heart.

McIntosh reached out and touched it before Ranma could clear it or release it.

Amazingly he didn't make a sound he just shuddered and removed his finger.

"Ow! That really hurts. Is it always like that? That unadulterated agony?"

"Yeah, It just keeps on, and on, and on. Until it would be a mercy to die. Luckily for me the men who used magic on me didn't want me crazy, just obedient, so they had a way to turn it on and off. So, you try magic on me and you die."

"Ok, that was pure hell. No magic. But how do I keep men from trying to build a rep by fighting a George? I don't want to have to cope with a constant series of exercise yard fights. If I chain you, they won't attack because it won't add to their rep."

Ranma looked at McIntosh, he was really distressed, he was trying to be fair to everybody and ended up being a real dither case.

"Ya can't keep them from it. But you can redirect it. Simply put . . . I, Saotome Ranma, swear on my honor that, no matter what the provocation, I will not start a fight. If someone wants to issue a challenge, they must do so in writing, to you and you will arrange for us to fight in the dojo under controlled conditions. There . . . chained tighter than anything you can do. Just make sure I don't regret this. Oh! and please keep people from touching me. Some jerk handled me in the mess and I sorta shook him. He's ok, but if I did that now I would be breaking my word."

"That's what it takes? Well shit, if I'd known that, it would have taken a load off my mind. If you will let me 'look' at you, I'd like to check your aura. I think that's why I almost always know when someone is lying to me." Ranma nodded and McIntosh used his nearly atrophied skill to look at Ranma's aura.

He saw that, while Ranma might tell the sort of untruth that all people told, he didn't lie about important things. And he certainly wasn't lying about this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

D and D Drunk and Disorderly

DOPP Destruction of Private Property

next chapter we have a big show, then there is a trial, after that we get deamons

This little bit has nothing to do with the story. I have had several people tell me I need a beta reader. I know I do. So rant here don't tell me I need a beta unless you are willing to beta me. done now


	30. Chapter 31

Disclaimer. I don't own Ranma. (In case you didn't notice it's kinda hard to keep him chained up)

Sorry I took so long to post. I'm working with a Beta. No other excuse.

Chapter 31

Ranma watched as the new men came in. He was hoping that he wasn't going to have trouble with them but he also knew it was probably a faint hope. When he was called to the Wardens' office an hour later he just sighed, checkmated his opponent, and followed.

"Damn that kid. I knew it. He's been playing with me for the last ten minutes." Carp grumbled, "I'm sorry I taught that kid how to play. No, I'm not really he gets such pleasure from our games I can't grip too much"

Carp turned to his neighbor. "Any idea what that's about?"

"Not a clue. Glad they quit chaining that kid up though. Hurt me to see it. And him so patient with the whole mess."

Collins worked in the kitchens as a trustee and Carp was his best friend. They had both taken Ranma under their wing, even more than the rest of the men had, so they were very interested in what was happening.

Ranma walked into Captain McIntosh's office and sat down in the chair next to the desk. McIntosh was on the phone and his quiet snarls left Ranma wondering what was wrong.

"Damn!" McIntosh tossed the phone in the general direction of the cradle. "I hate it when they try that shit. There is no way it's happening."

"What's wrong? Did I do somethin'? Am I in trouble?"

Ranma couldn't figure out what he'd done to make the Captain so mad.

"You didn't do anything. The Chinese government wants to borrow you for an assignment. And I have absolutely refused. There's no way I'm letting them borrow you. Nor are you going on any other assignments. You're incarcerated in my facility and that smacks way too much of coercion. I'm not having it. Steven even called me asking me to turn them down."

Ranma made a face.

"Uh . . . wazzat? I never heard that word before."

"Coercion is where you're forced to do something you don't want to by threats. Like me saying 'go to China or you won't like what happens here in the Stockade.' Or putting you in solitary because you wouldn't go."

"I don't think I'd like being borrowed. I saw what happened to Leela and Danny. I got a message from Danny. They're back at the dorm and wantin' to visit. But they're still stove up."

"That's why I wouldn't let anyone borrow you while you're under my command. I don't even want it to look like I did something like that."

McIntosh was astonished at the look on Ranma's face. He looked so happy it was astonishing. He had the biggest grin ever.

"Well gee. I don't think anyone's ever done somethin' like that for me before. It's always been like ya said. Fight or something bad will happen. Still . . . if they really need me, I ought to go. I don't mind fightin', I like it fine really, I just don't like bein' forced to kill some fool who is in the same chains as me. It's not right to put someone against me."

McIntosh sighed, he'd finally read the jacket that Steven sent over and all he'd wanted to do was crawl into a corner and gibber quietly. Now he had to tell Ranma the reason he'd originally called him.

"Well, I hate to tell you this but there is a new prisoner who's issued you a challenge. He went through all the channels, just like we set it up, so there's nothing I can do but tell you about it. You know you have the right to refuse. I know you gave your word to fight if they did it right but I really wish you wouldn't do this. I can sequester the jerk and . . . "

"Na, it won't go away. I've been thinkin' about it for the last few days. There's always gonna be trouble. Some idiot is gonna hear about the George, take one look at me and decided that it's gonna be an easy rep. Well, I've got plans. With a little stage, setting and your cooperation, I'm gonna nip this shit in the bud once and for all."

Ranma had an evil look on his face, the smile he aimed at the Captain was feral, all teeth and snarl.

"Holy Shit! Don't look at me like that. Damnit, you're as slippery as a greased eel. What do you have up your sleeve? I know I can trust you so I'll do whatever you want. I don't want fighting in the yard and if you have a good plan I want to hear it. And what do you mean stage setting."

Ranma settled down to explain his plan.

"Saotome, you're a little fiend. Can I bring my camera?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma waited as Buck looked at him like he'd lost every bit of sense he'd ever had.

"What the hell do you want with a set of double strength, heavy duty hobbles, never mind the belly chain and block cuffs. They might hold you, if you got sick or something."

"Yeah, I'm doin' some stage settin' and I need somethin' that looks like it'll hold me. Just make it look good. Too bad we can't get hold of some of that anchor chain."

Ranma snickered at the look on Buck's face.

"This has something to do with that stupid challenge doesn't it. Well, if you're going to nip another round of fight the George in the bud I'm all for it. It's just a nuisance trying to convince those guys to leave ya alone and chainin' you up again ain't happenin'" Buck eyed Ranma for a minute. He had that innocent look on his face, the carry one that teenagers got before they did something really outrageous.

"Let me see what I can come up with. I really need to know how strong you are, so I don't go over board or make them so weak you snap them."

Buck was finally going to get his curiosity satisfied. Sense Ranma broke his ropes he'd wondered, if he'd used a few more wraps would he have won.

Ranma looked around Buck's tiny office.

"You attached to that piece of steel there?"

Ranma indicated a steel bar about six inches long sitting on a pile of papers on the desk. Buck just handed it to him. It was two inches wide and an inch thick. Ranma took it between his index finger and thumb. Buck watched as he bent it into a C shape using just those two fingers.

"Oh . . . un."

Buck gulped, for the first time he was just a little afraid of Ranma. He was so strong that Buck realized he'd been humoring them about the transports.

Ranma tossed the now c-shaped piece of steel onto the desk and sighed.

"Now I suppose you're scared of me. I wish ya wouldn't be. I'm not gonna hurt anyone who doesn't hurt me first. And even then I'll just stop them the first time. Second time, all bets are off, just so you'll know."

"Well, Christ on a crutch! Sorry kid, I know you're not gonna do anything to me, but it's just a little unsettling. Here we been thinking if we just got a heavy enough set of shackles . . . Now I'm not sure what it'll take."

Buck wandered off into the ozone a little, trying to envision what Ranma had in mind. Showy, but breakable. Then it came to him, he didn't have to worry if Ranma could break them or not. It had been proven beyond a doubt, anything they had was useless.

"I have an idea but it's really out there."

Buck grinned.

"The farther out, the better. Buck, listen to me, please. I want to hit them over the head, then smash them in the face, with the fact that I am unbeatable. You may not have heard the story or else discounted it. I killed a Grizzly Imp with my bare hands, after I got wounded. I'm no superman but I'm probably the closest thing living. I can't have these guys constantly cruising for a rep. I know how easy it is for me to kill someone. And I don't want to kill a man again. I don't like it."

Ranma watched as Buck got a real serious look on his face. He pinched his lower lip and finally nodded

"OK, Saotome, I got it. I need a day and I want you around for measurements."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven didn't like it one bit, Sunny had told him about the arrangement Ranma had made with Captain McIntosh. So now he was sitting in the front row of something that resembled a gladiatorial arena way too much for his peace of mind.

The room was horseshoe shaped, with a large open area, two doors in the back wall gave access to the back areas. The curved side of the room was banked with seats rising up to the ceiling. It was actually a combination basket ball court and mini-theater for movies.

All Ranma's friends had been given special invitations to the event. McIntosh had nearly foamed at the mouth when Ranma had told him it was to be an open event. Every person in the Compound was invited.

"What the hell are you up to. I thought we were keeping it in the Stockade."

"Nope. If I'm gonna do this it's gonna be an all out 'scare the shit out of 'em' show. The more people who see it the more it gets around. The less trouble I have farther down the road."

Ranma had left MacIntoshes office and gone on about his preparations.

First the guards brought in the challenger. He was a big man, seven feet three inches tall, with arms and legs in proportion. He also wasn't one of the skinny types. He weighed in heavy and he worked out. A lot. He was a body builder and it showed. They led him to the middle of the floor and one of the guards patted him on the shoulder, a sympathetic look on his face.

Then they brought Ranma out. First they heard the rattling, scraping sound of someone walking in very heavy chains. Ranma appeared as a silhouette on the wall at the back of the hall distorted and wavering as he walked toward the door. Then he was standing framed in the white tile door, a slender figure dressed in black BDUs . He stood with his head slightly bowed, but not in defeat, his shoulders were back. He raked the hall with his eyes, letting them dart from face to face. He let a tiny smirk touch is lips.

The first step he took into full light made everyone in the room gasp. He was wearing enough metal to make a small car. The leg irons had 24 inches of heavy anchor chain between cuffs so heavy that they were almost two inches thick. His hands were held 14 inches apart by a thick bar with a cuff on each end of it, a heavy sliding ring welded around the bar fastening the bar to Ranma's waist by a short chain. The chain from the sliding ring and around Ranma's waist was a triple belt of heavy log chain locked at the back with a flat lock obviously made just for him.

Steven nearly went off. It took Kuno and Ryouga to keep him in his seat.

"Damnit! What's going on here? I'm not letting them force Ranma to fight. I'm going down there and bust some heads."

"Steven, stop it. Ranma and I discussed this with the other therapist at the Stockade. It's ok! He's up to something, I swear."

Ryouga finally got Steven calm and the turned their attention back to Ranma.

Ranma walked to the center of the ring, leg irons rattling and dragging. He looked his opponent up and down and shrugged.

"Ok, Buddy, let's get this on."

Ranma didn't even really look at the man. He just looked bored.

"I'm waitin for them to unchain ya. You can't fight like that."

"Yeah, I can. As big as you are, you're bound to be slow, so let's just get going. I'd like to get this over with. I want a soda. I'm thirsty."

Ranma shrugged his shoulder making chains jingle

"You're a cocky little shit! I oughtta just punch you and get it over with."

"Yeah, just slug me. Put me outta your misery. Come on, let's get this over with. Unless you're scared of me even in chains. You're like a lot of big guys all blow and no go."

That finally made the man mad, so he took a soft punch at Ranma. He wanted a rep but he didn't want to kill anyone. Ranma back stepped, hopping backwards on both feet. The next punch was at Ranma's face, he dodged. He dodged a series of ever more powerful punches, ducking and weaving, hopping backwards until he'd led the man right up to the wall in front of the seats. Now that he had the man where he wanted him, he dropped to his hands, using them as a pivot he used a double sweep to kick the man's feet out from under him then he rolled away and stood up, without using his hands.

"Ya ready to really fight yet, I'm tired of pissin' around."

Ranmas cocky tone of voice made his opponent lose his temper. He rushed Ranma, intending to finish the fight once and for all. Ranma sprang into the air, he didn't bother to squat, the rafters were a little low so he didn't need the height.

He kicked 'Tall-boy' in the head and landed behind him. He hopped backwards over his head and landed in front of him again. Another hop sent him straight for the man as he stood, slightly stunned, he caught him at throat height with the chain between his feet. Using his body weight and velocity he flattened him and held him for a moment by the chain over his neck. He let his opponent feel his weight and realize, if Ranma lowered the one foot he still held slightly raised, he'd have a crushed larynx.

Ranma pivoted on the ball of his foot, raising the other enough that he didn't break the man's neck as he removed the unbroken chain from, it kicking him in the head on the way around.

Ignoring his semiconscious opponent he looked around the arena. He saw several men who had claimed to be able to beat him. He pointed out one of them and just made a come here motion with one hand. The man jumped at the chance to fight. He knew he could take Ranma. He couldn't. Ranma waited until he was fully in the ring, then he used a different form of the same attack he'd used on his first opponent, only this time he used one hand and launched himself feet first. He kicked the man in the face knocking him flat, out cold.

He picked out two more men with the same results. It took him seconds to put them out. At the next pick the man shook his head vigorously. Ranma looked for another victim but anyone who even thought they might be picked was shaking his head and some even got up and left.

Steven was all but chewing the railing in front of him so he didn't even flinch as Ranma hopped up on it right in front of him.

"Want to be forgiven?" Ranma held out a hand as far as he could.

"Please! Ranma, I've said I'm sorry and I am, tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Steven was glad Ranma was ready to forgive him, he'd really missed the boy.

"Ok! Fight me. Right here, right now. No holding back."

Ranma back flipped into the center of the ring and waited for Steven to come to him.

Steven groaned, left his seat and walked into the center of the ring opposite Ranma. Man, I am so gonna get my ass kicked.

Ranma waited for Steven, when Buck came with the keys he motioned him away.

"Not yet."

"Ranma, he'll kick your ass."

"Maybe, maybe not. Don't think so."

Steven watched this by play and sighed, he couldn't hold back on Ranma he'd insult him. He had his doubts about who was better, but he didn't think it made much difference, so he wondered why Ranma was doing this, he wasn't the vindictive type.

"Just answer me one question. Why? I just need to know."

"Steven, I'm always gonna have trouble with ass holes wantin' to fight me and I'm tired of it. I'm puttin' on a show that'll convince them all that I'm a bad ass. Just get your ass kicked, or kick mine. But lets get it on."

Steven kicked off his shoes, took up his stance and waited for Ranma to make the first move, then he realized that he wouldn't. He'd stand there all day, hands held lightly in front of his waist, feet spread to the limit of the chain, waiting for Steven to start.

Steven started a single foot drop spin kick, At the point where he should have made contact with Ranma, it all fell apart. Ranma hopped onto his ankle, bending at the waist, he put one hand on Steven's thigh and, arching backwards, kicked him on top of the head. Continuing his flip, Ranma landed on both feet behind Steven, then he planted both hands on the floor and gave Steven a double footed mule kick, right in-between the shoulder blades. Steven managed to turn what was almost an inelegant sprawl into a forward roll, gaining his feet, he turned to locate Ranma.

Damn, that kid is quick. I wasn't that fast when I was in my prime. I am so dead.

"Hun! Fast little shit"

"Yeah, come on old man, I'm ready if you are."

Steven reached down into his bag of tricks and pulled out an old one. He dropped to the floor and rolled, head over heals, right for Ranma, at the last second he straightened out and punched Ranma right in the stomach. Or tried, Ranma didn't even try to dodge, instead he let Steven punch him in one cupped hand. Then he closed his hand over Steven's, he didn't squeeze, he just held it for a moment, Steven pulled back and Ranma let him.

Steven pulled an aerial maneuver next, leaping as high as the ceiling would let him, he tried to drop onto Ranma.

"Oh, that is so not happenin'. Steven . . . come up with something I haven't seen a thousand times."

Ranma met Steven in the air. He wrapped himself around Steven and grounded him by jerking on one leg, which left Steven flat on his back with Ranma standing on his chest.

"Give?"

"Yeah, uncle, aunties and all your cousins. Damnit and they haven't even unchained you yet."

Ranma grinned like a fiend, he stepped off Steven and waited as he got to his feet too.

"Go back to your seat, the show isn't over yet."

Steven looked at Ranma, "Am I forgiven yet?"

"Yes, you are. . . uh . . . Steven? I could really use a hug right about now."

Ranma gave Steven a sweet smile.

Steven just put his arms around Ranma and hugged him tight. Then he went back to his seat while the spectators wondered what was going on. Ranma had just whipped Steven in about three seconds and they were hugging.

Ranma returned to the center of the ring for the third time. This time he made it clear that it was a solo performance.

Ranma took up a crane stance, right leg raised horizontal to the hip, knee bent, right arm raised over his head, left dropped at the shoulder, elbow bent, palm out. The chains he'd been wearing broke with snaps like gun shots. The crowd, as the saying goes, went wild. The screaming and cheering, however, didn't over power the gasps of many of the men when they realize that Ranma had fought five men wearing heavy chains, chains that he could have broken at any time.

Ranma broke the cuffs off his wrists and ankles, then the broke the belt. He took all the pieces and threw them into the air. Launching himself after them, he used the Neko-ken to reduce almost ten pounds of steel into scraps. As the bits of metal rained down, he hit the floor and bounced like a ball. Back in the air, he put on a show of aerial maneuvers that made even the best gasp. Ryouga and Kuno were the only one's who could even see some of them. Ranma literally looked like a ball of motion, an occasional foot or hand showed for a split second, then disappeared again.

After two more bounces, Ranma lit. Then he started running, he quickly built up enough speed that he ran clear around the wall in front of the seats, horizontally, his cat shaped battle aura left no doubts as to how he'd done it.

Calling to an assistant (Sargent Polk) he looked over the crowd.

"I don't want to kill someone, so I usually pull my punches. If I didn't, this is what would happen."

Nodding to Polk, Ranma set himself. Polk threw a steel plate into the air. Ranma didn't even seem to move but the plate hit the floor in two pieces. Polk had smeared the plate with blue chalk before he launched it. Ranma casually blew chalk off his knuckles, his left knuckles.

The next piece of steel Polk threw was thicker. Ranma still didn't seem to move but this piece exploded into bits. Ranma brushed chalk off his boot.

The whole arena was now dead silent. No man made a sound. The only noise was heavy breathing from some of the men. As for Ranma, he hadn't even broken a sweat.

Ranma swept the men with another ugly look, pinning possible offenders with special looks of their own. Then he took a deep breath and yelled.

"DON'T FUCK WITH ME"

Every window exploded outward.

He turned and walked out the door like nothing had happened. Leaving stunned quiet behind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven took a deep breath, "Oh. My. God. I've never seen anything like that. Ranma sacred the shit out of me and I don't scare easy. What a show."

Ryouga felt sad. He'd been afraid of something like this for a long time. Ranma was either acting for all he was worth or he'd gone harder than was heathy for anyone.

Sunny was chattering away to anyone who would listen.

"Wasn't he great I think he really scared a bunch of dummies I bet he doesn't have trouble anymore. Steven can we go back and see him I'd like to see Ranma before they take him back to the stockade please."

Steven looked at Rio and motioned him to gather the men of Ranma's secondary team and bring them along. When he asked McIntosh if they could see Ranma the Captain just nodded. He didn't look very happy either.

Ranma looked up from his wrist, which was scraped a little.

Skeeter reached out at the same time as Sunny. Sunny giggled and said, "You can look at it but I get to fix it."

Skeeter took Ranma's wrist in his hand and examined it. All Ranma's friends gathered in the room but they were al subdued, afraid that Ranma was somehow changed. He was different. He seemed sadder, more threatening, something.

Ranma smiled sadly. He knew what everyone was thinking because they were all holding back.

"Ok people. Someone say something before you all explode. No, don't bother. I know want you're all thinking. I haven't gone nuts. But I'm tired of being good old Ranma. It leaves me open to all kinds of trouble. I need a reputation as a hard ass to keep the real hard asses from pestering me to death. I don't want to have to fight every fool and his brother every time I turn around. So I just put on the best act of my life. Sunny! Please tell me you're not scared of me now. If you are, it'll break my heart . . . Koi?. . . Say something!"

Ranma was scared now. He knew Steven wasn't scared of him. He was watching him too calmly for that. But the guys of his secondary team, especially Dave, Pete and Doug, were watching him closely. Rio was grinning at him like an idiot and Sargent Conroy had a smirk on his face that comforted Ranma in an odd way.

Kuno and Ryouga were both shuddering and Shuba and Danny were watching him warily. However Leela and Sunny reassured him. Sunny cuddled into his arms, touching his bruised and scraped wrists, healing them with that touch. Leela put her arms around him and nestled her cheek into his shoulder.

Ryouga reacted to this in typical Ryouga fashion. With a burst of jealousy.

"Hey! That's my girl! Hands off Saotome."

"Wha'd I do? I'm not doin' nothin'! She's huggin;' me, ya jerk."

Everyone in the room relaxed, Ranma realized that the reason Kuno and Ryouga were shuddering was that they were trying not to laugh. Now they just fell all over each other.

"Oh, my God! I like to laughed my ass off when I saw you. Dramatic much. And effective. You never saw so many guys on the verge of panic attacks in your life. Man, you looked like a complete head case."

Ranma grinned at Shuba, "That was my intention. I'm tired of every tough guy in the place taking one look at me and deciding I'm an easy target. They look at my size and age and get all the wrong ideas. I'm afraid one of these days I'm gonna kill someone. I'm gonna get surprised at the wrong time and some idiot's dead before I realize it's not a real threat."

At Ranma's grin and explanation, the last of the tension faded from the room. The following party lasted until McIntosh couldn't justify letting it go on.

"People! I'm sorry, but I've got to get Ranma back to the stockade, it's almost midnight. Sorry."

Ranma turned with McIntosh and started to leave but he turned back for one last word.

"Everybody visit me, please. Sunny, you especially. I can't do it with out you. All of you. You too Steven, I need a visit from you.. By"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Everything I know about the military is learned from three sources, friends who've been there, the local Recruiting Officers, who have been so helpful (thanks guys) and the net.

Most of what I know about guns is from personal experience.


	31. Chapter 32

Disclaimer, I don't own shit, don't want to own shit. Don't own Ranma either. (I'm ungodly tired of disclaimers. I know they are necessary and I know why, but it's still boring.)

Chapter 32

Sorry about last post. I had my chapter all beta-ed, then I posted the raw chapter. Thanks to Myth Barnhart especially, you are forgiven, plus I used your chapter plus NianaKuonji's for the final post thank you to both of you (I'm such a dork)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Ranma lost his temper and threw the book at the wall where it hit hard and exploded, scattering pages all over the room.

"Damn it, I'm never gonna get this shit. I hate it. I'm so stupid. "

Gunnie Polk stuck his head in the room. When someone as even-tempered as Ranma started throwing things and shouting it wasn't good.

"What's wrong, Ranma? Can I help?"

Ranma just kicked the broken book and snarled, "Yeah, call the guys from Psycho and tell them to come get me. I'm done."

"Geeze, Ranma, don't even joke about that. Tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help. At least let me try."

"There's no help for me. I'm just stupid. I don't get it. This calculus just ties my brain in knots. It don't make any sense. I did good in geometry and even managed respectable grades in trig. But all these formulas and shit I don't get. What the hell am I even gonna do with it? I don't know. I'm just gonna get held back. I'll have to take the whole class again. By myself. Shit I don't believe how stupid I am."

Ranma started picking up the pages of the broken book, a defeated slump to his shoulders.

"Look Ranma, I don't know about calculus and that stuff. I dropped out and joined this circus when I was eighteen and I hadn't reached this crap yet. I don't know why you're taking it at your age. Let me ask around and see want I can come up with. There's got to be someone who can tutor you. This stockade doesn't just have a bunch of head-breakers in it.'"

Grumbling, Ranma slapped the pages into some kind of order and dumped them on his desk.

"Just lucky that computer is in the desk instead of on it. I feel like throwin' the whole thing out the window."

"Damn it, Ranma, you don't have a window."

"Does that really make a difference to me? If I want a window, I'll have one."

Buck hurried to see what he could do. Ranma was really in a bad mood.

"Hi, Carp, what're you doin' here? I'd like a nice game of chess with you. But I'm here to meet my tutor. Damn calculus."

Ranma sat beside Carp and looked wistfully at the chess board.

"Well, chess later . . . Calculus now. I'm your tutor. Let's start with the problem you're having. What's up?"

Carp smiled at Ranma--he had a suspicion what the problem was and he knew a quick fix for it.

"I don't understand it and I can't figure out what I need it for."

"Well, you probably don't need it. And that's why you can't understand it, your subconscious is blocking it as useless. I've got a quick-fix for your problem. I've got a test here. You take the test and if you can pass it, I'll give Steven a heads up. All you need to make is a D. You won't be taking any higher maths so that'll get you by."

"Damn it! I don't want to just 'get by' and as far as I'm concerned a D isn't passing. At least not by much. Ryouga got a B- and I'm as smart as he is. At least I thought I was."

Carp looked at Ranma with new respect. If the boy was that determined, he'd get him his B.

"Ok, We'll start with this work sheet, work until you can't do anymore problems and then I'll start tutoring you on enough to get your B."

Ranma sat down and started on the test. It took him almost an hour to finish up.

"Oh, boy. Kid, all you need to do is finish up the next three chapters and you'll have an A, A- easy. You're smarter than you think."

"Yeah, well, it's really hard when I'm doin' it all by myself. Between killin' Imps and rescuin' my friends from witches I haven't had time to study enough. All I want to do is get this over. I'm in jail anyway so just torture me with maths and drive me round the bend while you're at it."

Ranma smiled at Carp to show that he was just kidding; the man had given him hope that maybe he'd manage to pull this one out of the fire too.

Carp eyed Ranma and had to laugh: this kid was a perfectionist and was harder on himself than anyone else could ever be. He was going to make it fine.

"Here, do this worksheet. If you have trouble I'll be around. When you're through and I've graded it, I'll help you with the ones you've gotten wrong and then we can have a game of chess. How's that?"

Ranma looked at the worksheet. There were only ten problems on it but he knew that it was going to take him some time to get them done, as most of the problems had multiple steps and he had to show them.

"Carp?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do I have to show all these steps? It makes it even harder for me to do the problems. I have to back up and redo everything so I'm sure I've shown them all. And it's driving me to distraction. Why can't I just write down the answers like I did in geometry and trig?"

Carp went cold. Oh, shit. Don't tell me.

"Saotome Ranma! Don't you dare tell me you can do that in your head?!"

Ranma ducked his head, blushing.

"Un . . . ok? I won't tell you I can. But I really can."

Ranma was frustrated--no one believed him when he told them that he really could work most of these problems in his head. It was easier to just write the answers down, but when they wanted all the steps he couldn't do it. It was too hard to back up and do steps when he knew the answer. He had to make each step a separate problem and it took forever.

"Look, Saotome. I know you hate to be called a liar so I won't, but you do know that doing these problems in your head is almost impossible, don't you?"

"Carp, I don't care, all I know is I can. And it's really hard to have to break each problem down into steps. First I have to figure out what the steps are . . . "

Carp interrupted. "Saotome . . . just shut up for a minute. I need to think. . . . mmmmm. . . . here, gimme that worksheet." Carp took the packet and gave Ranma a different one, saying, "Don't worry about trying to do the steps, just give the answers."

Ranma took the sheets of paper and started to write. It took him almost half an hour to finish the papers while Carp watched him go through almost all the problems like they were simple math.

"Well, how bad is it? I can't stand much more of this, it's driving me crazy. I know I'm stupid but gimme a break here."

"Saotome, I don't want to ever hear you say you're stupid again. This is one of the most amazing tests I've ever seen. You've gotten more right by just answering them than you did by doing the steps.

"That's one of the reasons why I quit teaching. The system is set up to teach kids to fail. If you are a little different or have problems, they don't want to have to deal with you. It's an exercise in futility for any kid to try to rise above the herd. You're smart, real smart, and the system is set up to crush any differences, not celebrate them."

Ranma grimaced at a memory that was less than pleasant. "Yeah, and standing in a hall holding buckets doesn't endear anyone to the faculty, especially if they take sides and have pets."

"Holding buckets? What the hell?" Carp wondered why Ranma would have unpleasant memories of holding a bucket.

"Yeah, Principal Kuno made me hold four five-gallon buckets for hours at a time. It wasn't too hard on _me,_ but it got really boring and I don't handle boredom very well."

Carp did the math in his head. "Damn it, that's eighty pounds per arm! For hours? It's cruel, that's what it is. You . . . "He sighed and gave up. Saotome was looking at him like he'd lost his mind.

"What's cruel? Being bored to death never really killed anyone. I'd rather hold buckets than be beaten, even though taking a beatin' is over quicker."

Carp just sighed and gave up. He'd heard stories and some of the things that Ranma tossed off as nothing made most of the men in the Stockade cringe. Ranma's show had really opened the eyes of even the most skeptical of men.

"Here, quit givin' me the creeps. Let's play some chess."

"Yeah. How about that paper?"

"Well, I tricked ya. It's the real deal. I have to send it in to be officially graded but unless I've lost my mind completely you've got an A. Chess!"

Ranma poked Carp in the arm. The old guy was as sneaky as they come: by having him take the test without knowing that it was real, he'd made sure that Ranma didn't get test nerves. He wondered how well he'd really done.

Ranma played several games of chess with Carp and spent most of the afternoon wandering around the exercise yard watching different activities and just enjoying the freedom of being unchained.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Damn it, I'm tired. Kuno, how many assignments have you gone on?"

"Six or seven, I forget. And there are a lot of incursions that we didn't need to go to, they were all just shoot-'em-ups, but we really need Ranma. Even Steven says we need him back."

"Ryouga, that Warden says he's not letting Ranma be coerced into fighting. I don't think it's right either. Either he's a free agent with the right to decide whether he'll fight or not, or he's a slave forced to fight. You know how Steven feels about that and I don't feel any different. He doesn't fight while he's locked up. Serves the 'powers that be' right anyway. _They_ have to explain to the officials why we're short-handed."

"Yeah, but I'd really like a piece of that Downs prick."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Steven, we got Downs. I mean we really got him. But damn it all depends on . . . as if you couldn't guess. Ranma. We've got to bring him into court to testify. I just hope he's up to it."

Steven looked at Dorrie and just grinned, saying, "I'll talk to him before we make any final decisions. I don't know how he's going to react to having to come to court again since his last experience wasn't too pleasant. And this is going to be more difficult because he can't lose his temper. _And_ they're going to try really hard to make him look like a loose cannon. We can't afford that."

Dorrie nodded; she knew a lot about the legal system. She was a lawyer herself, knew all the tricks that the defense would pull and she didn't see Ranma being able to withstand most of them.

"Steven, we'll just have to get him in and work him over, let him know what he's going to be dealing with. If he's prepared, I think he'll be OK, but you know how he is about surprises--he hates them more than you do."

"OK. Let's drag him in here and haul him over the coals until he learns to keep his temper. I want Downs in the worst way."

Steven and Dorrie were prepared and they were going to make sure Ranma was prepared too.

"Ranma, you can't lose your temper. If you do, you'll let Downs get away with everything. The Defense is going to drag every mistake you've ever made out into the court room and shove it in your face."

Ranma snarled, he was trying to keep his temper but it was really hard. Dorrie kept asking him the same questions and drilling him in the answers so that he wouldn't have a bad reaction. The only one that kept pushing all the wrong buttons was why he had gotten whipped. It just caught him the wrong way every time.

"If they ask me that question I don't think I can keep my temper. It just hits me the wrong way every time. I didn't want to kill that man, but after the first one I didn't have much choice. How could I let them whip him to death? I gave him a clean, fast death rather than one that could have lasted hours. What am I supposed to say? I . . . "

Dorrie just gave up. She knew that any answer wasn't going to be a good one, not to the Judge. Luckily, this wasn't a full trial, just a preliminary hearing. It would give Ranma a chance to get used to the courtroom and procedures.

Two days later Steven and Dorrie were informed that Downs had waived his preliminary hearing and they were going straight to trial--the next day.

"He _what_?? I can't believe that idiot waived his preliminary hearing! That puts most of the witnesses without any experience in a court room!"

"Son-of-a-bitch. I can't believe that ass actually did that. What the hell is he thinking? We'll fry him like an egg!"

Steven was sure that the evidence they had would convict Downs of all kinds of crimes from falsification of documents to attempted murder and treason. Hopefully he'd be in prison until he rotted.

Dorrie just sighed. Steven would never understand the reasoning behind legal maneuvering like this. Most of the people who would testify had some kind of experience, or at least were adults. The only one they had to worry about was Ranma. He was going to be a problem: his inexperience could lead to him acting out in court and that wouldn't impress the Judge.

"Steven, calm down. We just have to figure out how to get the court on Ranma's side. The Judge has read all the charges against Downs and we gave him the transcripts of Ranma's trial as well. The briefs are damning in and of themselves. That's why Downs' attorney waived the preliminary hearing. It's not necessary and you don't want to annoy the Judge."

Dorrie looked at the papers she'd gotten from the court. All she could do was read them and reread them to make sure she was reading correctly.

"Oh! Oh, dear! Oh, my goodness."

"What?! What is it? Damn it, woman, don't go off on me! What the hell is it??"

Steven thought he'd made a mistake, that he wasn't in the right office. Dorrie didn't look like that nor laugh like that in a crisis.

"That stupid shit has agreed to go before a Military Tribunal, one made up of three of the most honorable men I've ever met, and they are aware of all the facts--not just what that nasty man representing him has put in his briefs. My briefs are practically the exact opposite. There's going to be a lot of testimony by character witnesses. You should see the lists, it's going to be a slaughter. And Downs is the goat."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Look, I don't know what to do now. Dorrie drilled me and now they've changed everything. What do I do?"

"OK, Ranma, all you are going to do now is get up and testify to what you did and why. Refute or confirm the testimony of character witnesses. Just answer any question as truthfully as you can. It's a Military Tribunal instead of a Civilian Court. You've got a better chance with them."

Carp hoped Ranma didn't succumb to an attack of nerves. If he got too nervous, he'd make a bad impression on the Judges. With all he'd read in the briefs he _knew_ Ranma _had_ to impress the Judges or everything was going down the tubes.

"Look, the first thing you've got to realize is that the Defense is going to have a heyday with your reputation. You can't lose your temper. They're going to do everything in their power to make you uncomfortable and off-balance."

Ranma sighed; damn it, he'd known that a lot was going to rest on his shoulders but this was ridiculous! It was really down to his word against Downs'. Character witnesses all 'round. He just hoped that whoever they called in his behalf wasn't mad at him at this particular time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, gentlemen, we've really got our work cut out for us. These briefs and bios are telling in the extreme. We've got to get some real-time testimony into the records, but quite a bit of this is easily admitted without review." All three Judges sighed resignedly and prepared for boring testimony from both sides as to the character of the interested parties. Yes, boring and Ranma in the same sentence.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Defense Attorney, Mr. Cash, looked at the young man and gritted his teeth. He really didn't want to do this. He'd found that he didn't trust his client as far as he could throw the overweight pain in the ass.

"Well, Mr. Ryouga, I understand that Mr. Ranma tried to murder you more than once. Would you care to tell us about this? Remember you are under oath. Your current friendship with the gentleman in question cannot be allowed to influence your testimony in any way."

Ryouga grinned, sending a cold chill through Mr. Cash. "I understand. Oh, and Mr. Cash? It's Hibiki-san if you don't mind."

Ryouga cleared his throat. "A-hem . . . as to Ran-chan trying to kill me, I don't ever remember a time that he tried. If he'd tried, he'd have succeeded. However, I'm not sure how many times I tried to kill him. It seems to me it was at least four, or maybe five.

"I was always blamin' all my problems on him, but he never did anything but try to get me to get my head outta my ass. I wouldn't say 'I object' if I was you."

Ryouga's look verged on homicidal and Mr. Cash decided that prudence was a very good thing. "Where was . . . oh yeah. So when I kinda flipped out over something or the other and made him dig his own grave, after he beat the hell outa me for it...instead of crackin' my skull and leavin' me in that grave, he just offered me his hand and said 'Hibiki, we're rivals, not enemies. I wish you'd get that through your pig-stubborn head.' I had an epiphany. I got myself together and finished school, got a degree and I owe my life today to Saotome Ranma. Without his patience and goodwill I'd probably be a murderer or in a nut house by now."

Cash gulped. Damn it, Downs had turned this one completely on its head! "Well, that was very enlightening, thank you."

The Prosecutor stood and said, "No questions at this time. Thank you, Hibiki-san."

Mr. Cash ground his teeth: he didn't want anything to do with questioning this self-possessed arrogant young man. He was obviously extremely rich and not the sort to be trifled with. "I understand that you have testimony that Mr. Ranma indulged in white slavery."

"I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. Perhaps you could state it again?"

"Did, or did Mr. Ranma not have some untoward control over a girl that is referred to as the 'pigtailed girl'?"

"Ah yes, her. He certainly possesses her body and soul."

"I see. And you don't think that could be considered slavery?"

"Well, no, since they are one and the same." Kuno-san shook his cuffs and smirked at Cash.

"Excuse me. I don't think I understood the answer." Cash did a double-take.

"Saotome Ranma and the pigtailed girl are one and the same person. She is usually referred to as 'Ranko', by the way."

"I see. Are you sure? That seems to be a bit . . . '

Kuno interrupted the lawyer; he was getting bored. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm insane, not stupid. And that's another thing. I have a chemical imbalance which causes me to be somewhat annoying at times and homicidal at others. Like Hibiki-san, I too, attempted to kill Saotome-san several times. Instead of defending himself to the utmost and putting an end to me, he befriended me. He has been nothing if not understanding. After all, he didn't have to become my friend. He could have done just as well--if not better--if he'd just tolerated me."

Kuno gave the lawyer a condescending look and stroked the knife-like crease in his trousers, drawing attention to the suit. It was Armani and extremely expensive.

"However, I feel that as I am under oath I must admit that Saotome-san has had experience in slavery. From the other side. I believe that your client neglected to mention the fact that his father sold him."

After having the Senior Judge quash the uproar and overrule the objection Kuno-san remarked, "Yes I find it objectionable too."

"My name is Tendo Akane. I was Ranma's fiancee. We didn't get along very well. I am in anger management classes."

"I'm not sure what that has to do with the fact that he beat you up on several occasions."

"_What_? Ranma never laid a hand on me. I'm taking classes because I beat him up one time too many. He broke off our engagement because of it."

Well, surely you couldn't have done him much damage. You're . . . "

"A breaker of considerable skill, thank you, I teach martial arts in my own dojo. The Anything goes School of Martial Arts for ladies. The only one who is a better breaker than me is Ranma and possibly Ryouga. It's because of Ranma that I have a school of my own. Despite the fact that I nearly beat him to death with a bokken he did his best to help me. Ranma doesn't hit girls. Used to drive me nuts."

"I see, no more questions." The prosecution declined to question the witness.

Mr. Clark rubbed his neck. The first real testimony had been an unmitigated disaster. No one was going to say anything negative about Ranma, and this insistence about calling him by his first name! These damned Orientals were just too much; all the fuss about names and methods of address were distracting.

"Next witness please. I believe this witness is Mr. Ranma's father."

"I don't know what I ever did to have such an ungrateful son. All I ever did was to try to make a man of him."

Genma didn't realize what an unappetizing and villainous impression he was making. He had been brought in in chains and had done nothing but squirm and complain rather loudly since. Including remarking in a rather loud voice that he hoped that his ungrateful son would be taught a lesson soon.

"Yes, I see. Could you tell us a little bit about your unceasing efforts to turn a sullen and ungrateful child into a worthwhile, contributing citizen?"

Mr. Clark had no idea what he was unleashing on an unsuspecting court room and the Senior Judge finally told him that if he objected one more time to his own witness' testimony he'd be held in contempt.

Genma finished up his testimony with, "And no amount of beating or extra exercises has ever done a bit of good. He's as arrogant and insolent as ever. Even if he is one of the best martial artists ever, he's never done me a bit of good. He never makes any money."

Mr. Clark wondered briefly if he could just crawl under something and whimper quietly; he'd never had such a bad witness in his life. The man had impressed everyone negatively and his testimony only made Ranma look like the victim of severe child abuse.

"My name is Saotome Nodoka. I find Ranma to be an entirely unsatisfactory child and an undutiful son."

Nodoka left the stand and refused to return. The uproar in the court room reached epic proportions and the judges agreed to a short recess in order to restore order.

"I think that we need to get Saotome on the stand as soon as possible. However, I'm afraid we're going to have Downs inflicted on us first."

Downs managed to make a very bad impression first thing. He'd obviously dressed with considerable care. But some how he managed to look vulgar. His suit was expensive but it didn't quite fit right: he'd bought it off the rack and never had it tailored. His haircut was bad and he greased it flat back, covering a bald spot with stuck-down strands that only served to draw attention to it. His gaudy watch was a Rolex knock-off and he'd worn (for Kami's sake) a pinkie ring and a heavy gold bracelet

His testimony was also wasn't quite what it should be. He never understood that what he'd done was bad, wrong, immoral and illegal: in fact he seemed somehow to be proud of the fact that not only had he gotten two teenagers captured and nearly sacrificed, he'd also set another up for incarceration in an adult prison.

"Of _course_ I changed the ages. If I hadn't we wouldn't have been able to use them. What difference does it make? They're just brats and we need to be able to make use of their talents. The agency is not the place for the faint of heart. I was just doing my duty."

Clark finally did put his head down on the table. The judges looked disgusted and all Clark could do was thank his lucky stars he'd managed to impress on Downs that it was the height of impropriety to call Ranma a chink. Mainly by pointedly informing him that Ranma was Japanese, not Chinese.

Ranma snickered. Downs had nearly hung himself and he, Ranma, was going to give the judges enough rope to hang him twice over.

The testimony of his parents had made him look like either a juvenile delinquent or some kind of pathetic loser. The testimony of all his secondary team had made him look like a soldier, one of their own. Especially when they'd told about the collapsing tower and the imp attack.

Leela and Danny hadn't testified yet but Shuba had told everything about the raid on the hotel.

So far the Trial had taken four days and while Ranma had been there every day he'd never set foot in the court room. As a convicted, incarcerated criminal he wasn't allowed in the court room until he was actually testifying. He was watching the proceedings through closed circuit TV.

Now it was time for him to start testifying.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

Ranma leaned against the bars of the cage. He was bored, the testimony was all about what Downs had done in America. It wasn't good. But it just kept on and on.

Sunny walked up, smiling. The guards had gone somewhere on important adult business leaving Ranma unguarded. snicker

"Hi, bad boy."

"'Lo, little girl. Want some candy?"

"Ranma, you are just too bad for words."

Sunny threaded her fingers between Ranma's through the bars and leaned her forehead against his. Ranma pressed up against the bars needing the feel of Sunny against him.

Ranma gave Sunny a quick peck of a kiss and then another; nuzzling his cheek against hers he whispered to her. He nipped at her lower lip, coaxing her to open her mouth.

"Mmm, Ran-chan, love you. Miss you." Sunny licked Ranma's lower lip and then . . .

"Hey get away from there. You don't have any business necking like that."

Sunny snarled, "I hope you get the . . ."

Ranma clamped his hand over Sunny's mouth, preventing her from saying something crude.

"Sorry about the door thingy."

The guard looked at the heavy barred door: it was bowed out by several inches.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma groaned, they were going to restrain him again. He was so tired of this shit it was unbelievable. He knew Steven had told them it was no use. It pissed him off no end so he decided to be a shit about it.

The guard had hold of Ranma's wrist, he wasn't resisting exactly but he had frozen his arm exactly one half-inch too far from the cuff so the guard couldn't get the ratchet to catch. He also had his feet just exactly that much too far apart--another guard was on his knees, trying to get cuffs around his ankles.

Ranma looked at Sunny over the head of the first guard, he looked sulky and sullen.

Sunny smiled at him with her heart in her eyes and Ranma couldn't resist that smile. He gave Sunny a heavy-lidded look slightly pursing his lips, then he licked his upper lip slowly and blew a kiss in Sunny's direction.

Sunny made a catching motion and pressed both hands to her breast, dramatically swooning into Kuno's arms. He, of course, caught her and snickered while he fanned her with a folding fan. Ryouga choked and Danny, Leela, and Shuba all started giggling

That made Ranma break out into merry laughter, startling both guards who looked at him like he'd gone completely crazy.

Steven walked out of an office to see his prize brat pack standing around laughing like a pack of hyenas while two sweating guards tried to put shackles on Ranma. "Damn it, Ranma, stop messing around and let those guys do their job. It'll all be over soon."

Ranma gave Steven a sloe-eyed look and moved his hand and foot so the guard could get him chained. I'm so gonna make that idiot regret this.

"Defense Attorney Clark is insisting that you are too dangerous to be left free. I hope you've thought of some way to make him regret this, and demonstrate your willingness to cooperate . . . Hhhmmm?"

Steven couldn't wait to see what Ranma was going to get up to in the court room. He'd just been in with the judges and they weren't going to do anything about Ranma and the restraints. He'd warned them that it wasn't a good idea as Ranma was tired of fooling around with that kind of thing. The judges weren't afraid of Ranma (Ooops!) but they didn't want to have to mess with arguing with Mr. Clark. "It won't hurt him for this little bit."

"Yeah, well, he's put up with this shit with good grace for three weeks, it's time to give the poor kid a break."

"What's he going to do about it?"

"I don't know and that's what scares me. He can be unpredictable at times. He's not dangerous like Downs says, but he's only sixteen and can be a little impulsive at times. I'll laugh my head off cause I know he's gonna make a fuss."

Now he came out to see this in the hall. Ranma you little devil, hope you make it good. I need a good laugh.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they reconvened court Ranma was already in the stand. The first problem was with the oath.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"Don't believe in the Christian God. I'm an Animist myself. Ya know?" Ranma crossed his legs snapping the leg irons with a sharp report.

The clerk chose to ignore that and concentrate on the oath. All three judges jumped or flinched and the guards just gulped.

"OK, do you swear, vow or affirm that your testimony will be truthful to the best of your abilities?"

Ranma raised his right hand and said, "I swear to tell the whole truth on my honor as a man."

Steven bowed his head into his hands and laughed himself silly. "Oh lord. They have no idea what they have gotten themselves into."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Animism attribution of conscious life to objects and phenomena in nature or to inanimate objects.

Animist person who believes in Animism.

Aside to Anonymous

If it was so bad why did you read thirty chapters. And also what part of Alternate Universe didn't you understand. Only cowards post anonymous flames!


	32. Chapter 33

Disclaimer I don't own Ranma.

Thank you to all my kind reviewers. You made this author very happy. I'd thank you individualy but there's a lot of you.

I also want to thank my Beta, Kiana Kuonji, for all the help and the heads up. Bless you bunches.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Genma 33

Once the oath was taken care of Ranma waited for the questioning to begin. But there seemed to be some problem with who was going to ask questions first. He was a prosecution witness so the prosecution should go first but Downs seemed to think that the Defense should go instead.

Ranma sat on the stand for fifteen minutes while the two attorneys stood at the Bench consulting with the three Judges, bored he started nipping off links of the broken chain and lining them up on the railing in front of him.

"Mr. Ranma, we would like for . . . "

Ranma interrupted Mr. Clark, "I know I'm gonna come off as a smart ass kid, but I'm tired of this. My name is Saotome Ranma, in American it's Ranma Saotome. You will address me as Saotome-san or Mr. Saotome. I'm not answering anything until you get my name right. It's disrespectful."

"Oh I see. Well _Mr._ Saotome, we would like you to understand that due to your age we have decided that only one of us will question you. Instead of subjecting you to direct, cross, redirect and so on; we have submitted all our questions to the judges in writing and they will be questioning you themselves. Do you understand?"

Ranma frowned, he didn't understand anything and said so. He also said that it didn't make a particle of difference to him as he'd given his word and meant to keep it, no mater what. He looked at the judges and told them to ask their questions.

They started out with questions about his training with Pop. He told them the truth about it, how he'd always been the one to do without; food, clothing, shelter, and also about how he'd worked to make money since he was small.

"I don't mind plantin' rice; that's just stoop labor, but I really hate building stone walls and digging irrigation ditches, and cleaning chicken coops. I have nightmares about that and other stuff.. But if I wanted to eat I had to work. So Pop saying I never made any money was just him feeling sorry for himself. As usual."

Ranma added a broken cuff to the line of broken links.

The judge in charge of questioning frowned at the line of links and sighed.

"Well, next question. We'd like you to tell us your side of the Chain Child Agency incident."

Ranma fiddled with the line of links and then tugged his pigtail. He didn't want to talk about this at all. He only really talked about it when he was angry or feeling especially safe. ". . . So he was going to steal me back but they sent me to another dimension and he lost me. I don't think it would have done any good any way. That collar would probably have forced me to go back."

The judges were looking especially disgusted. None of them could reconcile what Downs had written about the incident with what Ranma had just told them. Where did this idiot get his information?

Ranma picked at the chain belt and it broke so he dropped it over the railing

"Young man, you realize that you're supposed to be restrained while in the court room?"

"Fuck if I care. I'm_ tired_ of this. I put my life on the line for you and all you want to do is tie me up physically and mentally. I'm not your slave, but you treat me like I haven't got sense enough to come in out of the rain. I may only be sixteen but I've got more battle experience than most of the guys you seem to think have the right to command me. Steven can tell me what to do and I'll do it _almost_ without question, but most of the rest of the guys around haven't got battle sense enough to fight their way out of a paper bag. All they're interested in is results, no matter who has to get killed to get them."

Ranma scowled at the judge and sulked.

Looking at him, the three judges put their heads together, muttering. Then the lead judge sighed and looked at the paper in front of him. The altered paper said twenty-six and they had been hoping that Ranma was older than the birth certificate indicated but looking at him and listening to him had banished that hope. He was much more mature than many sixteen year olds but he also showed his age in the way he handled other things. They let the matter drop even though part of the briefs said plainly that he was dangerous.

Ranma watched as Rio popped his cell phone open and looked at the screen: text messaging was allowed in the court room as long as the phone didn't ring. Rio nodded to him and left, taking Pete and Doug with him. Ranma wondered vaguely what that was about.

Vignette

"We're getting an incursion right over our heads. It's incredible."

"Shuba, we need Shuba! Get every one on line now."

"Damnit we need Ranma."

"Can't get him, he's in court testifying. If he finds out about this he'll run out and be in even more trouble."

"We really need to get this cleared up. We have several different documents with a different age on each one. Is your birth certificate correct?"

"I'm not sure if the one you have is the original or a true copy, there are several doctored ones around. May I see it?"

Ranma held out his hand for the paper, noticing that he was still wearing a cuff on that wrist, he broke it off and dropped it on the floor. He seemed to be littering the court room with bits of chain.

"Yeah, that's the correct date."

Ranma handed the paper back to the bailiff who returned it to the judge. The judge rubbed his forehead and leaned to the left.

"I'd like to know how anyone justified sending a sixteen-year-old to a stockade filled with adult men. "

While they were consulting Ranma used a Neko-ken claw to cut the rings of metal from his ankles, he held the cut rings in front of his face and smirked at Downs over them then dropped them on the floor at his feet.

"Will you look at that? I'd like to know how they managed to keep him chained up if he can do that. . . . Ahem! . . . Mr. Saotome, two questions just for my own curiosity." Ranma nodded. "I've looked at the translation of your name and it doesn't make sense. And two: how did they keep you in shackles if you can just break those like that?"

Ranma eyed the judge and, deciding that he really did want to know and wasn't making fun of him, shrugged.

"I don't understand this need to translate names, I mean "a rose by any other name'." The judge looked puzzled. "Shakespear, Romeo and Juliette: act 2, scene 2, line 2. _What? _I'm not a complete dummy! Hang around Kuno-kun and you'll learn _something_. Anyway . . . It's translated 'Rice planting girl wild horse'. That's why they call me the Wild Horse of Nerima.

"And you can't keep me chained if I don't wanna be. I just put up with it because I wanted to prove that I'm trying to be cooperative and it kept me out of fights. Most of the guys in the stockade took me up and watched out for me. But there's always one or two that just can't resist the urge to make a big reputation by beating up the little George. Only I'm the strongest of us all and my reflexes get the better of me if I'm not careful. I'd sure hate to kill some baka by mistake."

All the Judges looked skeptical, he couldn't be that fast. Could he? Then there was a soft whish of displaced air and a link of chain appeared in front of each of them. They never saw him move, when they turned their heads to look for him, he was sitting exactly where he'd been, looking for all the world as if he had no idea what had happened. Except for the feral grin he turned to Downs.

"Well, on to more important things. The question of Tendo Akane. You've been accused of beating her up."

Ranma closed his eyes, he wasn't going to lose his famous temper, he really wasn't. After a deep breath and a sigh almost as deep Ranma got his anger under control.

"I never hit Akane, not even in practice. I wouldn't spar with her even. I was too afraid of making a mistake and hurting her. But that never stopped her from smackin' me around. The last time I saw her she nearly beat me unconscious with a bokken. I broke off our engagement and came home. Sunny fixed me up. I'd like to find out how anyone got the idea I'd hit a girl for any reason. I've never been outta control enough to even think of doin' somethin' like that."

"I see . . . what's a brokk'n? I've never heard of such a thing." The judge made a note and looked at Ranma waiting for an answer. He frowned as several men got up and left at the same time distracting him.

"A bokken. It's a practice sword made of bamboo. Hurts like hell."

"I see. And what did you do about it?"

"What I _always_ did. I just took it until I couldn't stand it anymore. Then I begged her to stop. Whatm' I supposed to do? Smack her? I'd kill her."

"Well that's certainly a different answer than we have here. And Mis Tendo's testimony supports yours . . . breaking? She's a breaker of some talent I see."

"Yeah, she's got a fist like a hammer."

"Let's see. Oh yeah. . . here's one on your character. You had a problem with some locals and begged them not to hurt you? Seems a little far fetched, what was that about?"

"Oh! These guys kidnaped Sunny and Leela. I had to distract them while Kuno and Ryouga got into position. So I did what I had to do. It got me closer to the guy and kept them all distracted until we could bust them. Whatever works. Any more foolish questions?"

"I don't think so. We seem to have gotten to the end of the less serious ones."

Ranma watched as more men and women left the court room, it was half empty by now and Ranma knew, ego aside, everyone in the Compound who knew anything was watching the trial like a hawk. More rested on this trial than wether Downs was guilty or not. The real point of the trial was wether Department 13 was obligated to lend its people and how they could be treated when lent. So what was going on?

"Fuck! Shimatta! K'so! Son of a bitch! Look at the sky. There's an incursion right under my nose. Who the hell is keeping secrets?"

The Judges looked out the same window Ranma had and saw a strange wavering in the sky, like heat waves only stronger. Then something fell out of it and disappeared into the woods. Suddenly they were getting a much more personal demonstration of Department 13's responsibilities than they had expected.

Ranma made a decision. He got up and snarled, "I'm not escaping. I gotta be _there_. Just go on without me, you don't need me and they do."

He turned to the Judges and put his right fist on his left shoulder.

"Ave Cesar, I morituri salutatum"

With that he jumped out the window and took off for the incursion site at a dead run. And when Ranma runs full out he just plain disappears.

Vignette

"Well I never. Finds out there's an incursion and heads for it so fast he just disappears."

"Kids a coward. Yeah right. I'm going over Downs' briefs and pink-lining everything I don't believe."

"Me too How about you""

The third judge just nodded his head.

After thirty minutes they compared notes. Between them they'd pink-lined most of the briefs.

"I call for a vote of confidence on Saotome. I vote yes."

"yes."

"yes."

"Personal opinion–and if anyone says I had one, I'll deny it-- Downs is a fuck wad."

When Ranma arrived at the scene, he grabbed the nearest man and demanded to know where the fighting was.

"Look Mister. You can't go up there without armor. Come on. You're Saotome, ain't ya. I'll get you some gear. You need a side-arm?"

Ranma didn't want to delay this long but he wasn't about to go into a fire fight without armor. And he wanted an AK-47 in the worst way.

"I need a long gun, I don't do to well with side-arms; by the time it gets that close all I want to do is punch it. Hurry up."

Ranma turned his head to look around and saw something he didn't want to. Body bags lined up outside a first aid tent.

"How many have we lost already?"

"Not too many: only six. But that's_ still_ six too many. They were on a training run and the sky just opened up and dumped gods only know what right on their heads. Took them completely by surprise."

Ranma got geared up and headed up country as fast as he could run.

Excerpt from Report submitted by Agent Downs:

Has no courage, avoids combat at all costs. Can't be trusted to take initiative.

Hey you got a coordinator here? I need to talk to him. Now! Move it mister, where's control?"

Ranma ran up to a tent that looked like a control center. He had his com gear but he didn't know what frequency to set it to. The one it was set on now was full of garbage.

"We just got a coordinator, some kid named Shuba. I don't know who you are and you can't go in . . . Hey!"

Ranma shrugged the Sargent's hand off and ducked under the tent flap. Glancing around he saw that everybody in the tent was looking at Shuba as he examined a map with marks all over it.

"Ranma, am I glad to see you. We got all kinds of shit just falling out of the sky right in our laps. I need to get organized but I can't get anyone to adjust frequencies. Different groups are walking on each other and no one can understand anyone. Go over to the communications trailer and make them do something."

Ranma nodded, this was always a problem, gear was issued set on a standard frequency and everybody thought it was 'theirs'. Shuba sorted, quickly telling Ranma to have the frequencies set so that the grunts who were running interference for Georges were on one, the ground grunts who were cleaning up vermin on another, and medical on their own.

Ranma opened the trailer door and grabbed the Captain in charge of the thing. Giving him a shake that rattled his teeth he got to the bottom of the problem real quick.

"I don't care if he's three. He's in charge as coordinator. Now do what I told you to or you're relieved of command and if you don't go quietly I'll throw your ass over the hill and you can get up close and personnel with the problem. Stupid Fucker."

The Captain issued orders and got the frequencies straightened out real quick. It's amazing what a glaring Ranma can get done.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damnit! There's so much vermin around and they're way to close to the command center. Gimme that thing and keep it fed."

Ranma snatched up an unmounted .50 caliber machine gun. The kind that is mounted on a Hummer or a helicopter. No one should be able to hand fire it.

Ranma hosed the area with fire, tracers flaring into the distance. As he cut the vermin down, he wondered where all the different kinds had come from; there were worm like things and something the looked like a cross between and wolf and a snake.

"Look buster, keep those belts linked, I don't want to have to stop to rebelt this thing. Come on! Keep them linked!"

Ranma moved at a slow walk with three men following him, one keeping the belts linked up so that he didn't run out of ammo, one guarding his back and one running back and forth on an ATV to bring him ammo. As he walked, he kept up a withering line of fire that chopped everything in his way into bits. The vermin thinned at an alarming rate; they kept coming but there were fewer and fewer.

"Hey! I said keep the belts linked. I'm gonna be out in about three seconds. What's the matter with you?"

Ranma eyed the short length of belt left and reached for a belt himself. That was when he realized that the man had a grip on the belt and wasn't letting go.

"Gimme! I need to keep . . . "

Giving the belt a jerk, the Corporal got Ranma's attention. The barrel of the .50 was so hot it was glowing: any more firing and it was liable to explode, as the barrel was so hot it was starting to warp.

"If you intend to keep up this rate of fire for much longer you need a water cooled. Come on man, let the grunts mop up. You're about to drop! You've been at this for over four hours and that's the second .50. You didn't even notice when I changed them out."

Ranma grunted, he vaguely remembered having the hot gun exchanged.

He was getting tired and he wanted a drink. He looked around, the ranks of vermin had thinned enough that he thought the grunts could handle them, but it was so important to keep them away from the command center. That was where all the wounded were and where Shuba and Sunny were.

Ranma got on the ATV with the one man and the two others got on another. They headed back to the command center for some rest.

On the way in Ranma realized that he was wounded, he had a long shallow gash on the back of his right upper arm and something had bitten him on the left thigh. Neither wound was bad, they were just annoying and would sap his strength if he didn't get them stopped bleeding. After the Imp clawing he had gotten more careful about bleeding.

The triage medic took one look at Ranma and called for a stretcher. Ranma declined it but was scooped up and dumped on it anyway. He relaxed and went with the medic, he didn't feel like arguing with him and so he ended up on an examination table waiting for attention. It was nice just to be horizontal for a while. He must have fallen in to a doze because he woke up to Sunny kissing him to some snickers from men standing around watching

"What? A guy can't kiss his girl? Go away you perverts." Ranma sighed. Sunny was going to be really mad at him and would probably give him a lecture.

"Ranma. I'm glad you came in so fast, you've hardly bleed at all. Kiss, kiss. Then let me take care of you and get you out of here so you can get some rest."

Sunny was all business after another kiss. She tore the sleeve of his shirt from cuff to shoulder and use antiseptic to wipe off all the blood. When she saw the wound she made a face and healed it quickly. Ranma nearly groaned; it felt so good and the warm golden feeling of Sunny healing him was indescribable. He almost, _almost_ felt like getting hurt more often so he could have that wonderful feeling.

"Ranma? Are you listening to me? You haven't fainted, so I'd like to know what you're thinking."

"No you don't, you'll smack me into next week. Love. . . Koi, we better get on with it. There are other guys who need you. "

"Damnit I haven't gotten to really see you in almost a month and this is the way I get to see you in all that time. I hate seeing you all bloody and what else do you have on you? Never mind, I don't really want to know. I told you to lay on your side so I can see your leg."

"Pervert."

"Who? Me? You betcha! Nice legs, boy."

Sunny smiled as Ranma relaxed, stretched out on his side and let her see his thigh. She had to tear a big hole in his pants leg. He wondered if he'd ever make it through a mission without losing most of his clothes

Finally getting everything cleaned up and healed Sunny gave Ranma one more kiss and let him go, after telling him that she didn't want to see him back in the M.A.S.H. tent again.

Excerpt from Report submitted by Agent Downs.

Can't be trusted to take proper care of himself or others, allows egotistical needs to supercede mission realities.

Can't be trusted to be where he is needed.

Ranma flopped down under a tree and curled up; thinking he could get some sleep and after that maybe some food. Then he'd head back to the fight unless Shuba called him on his radio. Shuba had been in touch with him several times while he was clearing out the vermin, mostly to tell him where he needed to go. But Ranma had usually already been where he was needed.

"You wake him! I ain't messin' with nobody from that group. You wake them the wrong way and you're dead."

Ranma felt a poke in his side. Someone was poking him with a stick.

He rolled onto his back and yawned he didn't know how long he'd been out but a glance at the sky said more than three hours. He took his time about getting really awake. He could hear combat in the distance but he couldn't do any good if he was worn out, he' been listening to the radio even in his sleep and knew that Ryouga was keeping things in control.

"What's up? I was about to wake on my own. I sure coulda used a few more winks."

The man who hadn't poked him handed him a plate filled with something that suddenly had his mouth watering.

"You need that more than you need a few more winks, as you called them. It's stew, canned but not that bad and it's filling. Eat that and if you want more, get in line. There's showers and clean clothes available."

Ranma sat down where he was and shoveled the stew into his mouth as fast as he could. As he was getting up to join the line for another serving he was stopped by an MP, who pointed to another group of men, all in prison slops

"You're supposed to be over there. Get with your group and stay there."

"Hand's off. I'm not with them, slops or not. I got other things to do than mop up after vermin, now that they're under control, more or less. I'm still hungry and I want some more of that stew."

Ranma just walked away from the Sargent who reached out to take hold of him; his partner kept him from getting his head jerked off by pulling him away by one arm while he explained quickly.

"Don't fuck with Saotome. He's a George and at this point he's needed somewhere else, let's go."

Vignette

"What's this?"

"Official protest, says Campbell is protesting the pressing of charges against Saotome."

"Huh? Campbell protesting charges against . . . yeah, well, I wouldn't want it known a sixteen year old smacked my ass either."

"If he protests the charges we can dismiss them under our authority and I vote yes."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"That dismisses sixty days of the sentence . . . leaves thirty days. He's served twenty-five, give him five for good behavior and all he has to do is go back to the stockade and sign off on completion of sentence and go home. Any objections?"

"No"

"No"

"Downs is a moron."

"No shit."

There was a line for the showers and another for clean clothes, but every man in the shower line tried to let Ranma cut in front of him. Ranma wouldn't let them, he wanted a shower in the worst way, but all the men in the line had obviously been in the fighting. Some were just dirty but some of them had ichor, blood, or some other even less identifiable substance smeared on them.

"I'll take my turn like everyone else. I'm not that special and I haven't gotten a call from Shuba so I'll wait."

Excerpt from Report Submitted by Agent Downs.

Insists on special treatment at every level. Uses position to obtain every perk available. Shameless exploitation of strength and abilities makes him a danger to every mission.

After a shower and clean clothes Ranma felt good. He fired up the radio and asked Shuba where he was needed next.

"Kuno's coming in, he's worn out and Ryouga hasn't answered the radio in a few. He's at these coordinates: go find him and see what's up."

Ranma headed for the coordinates and found Ryouga surrounded by Critters. He was just about exhausted, he was on one knee shooting the Critters using a Shi Shi Hokodan that was rapidly running out. He was saving his 'shots' until the Critters were almost on top of him.

Ranma started on the outside of the ring and took out as many of the Critters as he could, using a fairly high powered attack, it took him several shots to thin the ranks of attacking Critters enough so that he had to start fine-tuning his attacks so he wouldn't get Ryouga or any of the men with him.

Ranma felt sad, several of the men in Ryouga's secondary team were down and one was dead for sure. He shouldn't have stopped to take a shower. I'm so lazy. Shit, if I'd only gone out sooner.

Keeping his attacks small so he didn't get any side wash to hurt the men he was trying to save. Ranma cleared out the Critters as fast as he could.

"Ryouga, hey, come on, I need you to hold up just a little longer. I got most of them but you've got to watch my back. Up! Get your people moving."

Ranma used his Moku Takabisha carefully. He'd learned through intensive training exactly how much power to use to get results, there was no sense in using more ki than he had to. Even he would run out eventually.

Ryouga moved his men out and got to a clearing large enough for a Jolly Green to land. They all loaded up and got out of the path of one of the biggest waves of assorted demons yet.

"Shuba! What the hell is goin' on? We can't keep this up forever. I thought the Magicians were gonna close that rift. What's the hold up?"

"Ranma, they're closing it as fast as they can. They can't do anything with it while it's unloading on us. But they've closed it almost eight feet. Come back here! You need to rest again. Right now all that's out there are vermin."

Ranma looked at the men in the helicopter, they needed to get back to the command so they could be taken care of. Ryouga looked like hell. He was so tired he was literally staggering. When he finally flopped down on the floor of the chopper he sagged side ways and tears started leaking down his cheeks.

"Here pal, did that guy die? "Ranma put his arm around Ryouga who nodded

"Yeah, he's been dead a while. I've got to get the rest of my guys back and get them taken care of. You need to use this chopper to get you where you need to be, no sense wasting your strength running from place to place. That's what I did wrong. Wore me and my men out. God, I've missed you so much. I wish Downs had to deal with this sort of shit instead of us."

"Well, I wish I was rich and handsome. Wish in one hand, shit in the other and see which one fills up first, ya know. When you get back let them know I've requisitioned this chopper. If they need it to evacuate wounded, they can have it back, otherwise I'm usin' it."

When they landed Ranma got back in touch with Shuba: it was getting hard to get him because he was spending every second organizing clean up while the demons just kept coming, the rift dropping vermin and critters in waves. Before they could get completely cleaned up from one wave another began. Shuba told him to keep the chopper, he'd keep in radio contact and send him where he should be going.

Excerpt from Report Submitted by Agent Downs

Refuses to do more than the minimum needed to fulfill obligations to Department 13.

Has no concept of exerting himself above and beyond.

Ranma spent the next few hours flitting from one site to another, killing whatever he was told to kill. It didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon and Ranma wondered how he was going to keep up. Ryouga and Kuno both were worn out, Shuba had told him on the radio that he was on his own for at least six hours while they rested up.

Ranma was flagging fast and still trying to be a one man wreaking crew--his secondary team was having fits. They couldn't catch up with him and were delegated to cleaning up after him instead. Every time they thought they would get to him, they were informed that he'd just left for a new location. Critters and vermin were all over still, not hordes of them but enough that it was taking all everyone had to keep them contained in the mountains. They couldn't be allowed to get to Nerima or especially Tokyo.

Finally Ranma was called in. Shuba told him that the rift was closed and he could rest because there wouldn't be anymore waves of heaven only knew what coming. Ryouga and Kuno were both rested up and they would take over.

"Come back to command and get rested up, we may need you again."

Ranma made it back to the command post by the simplest means possible, he had the helicopter hover over the area and jumped. Steven saw him and gave him a cussing because he didn't use a rope or anything, he just jumped out at about two hundred feet

"Look Steven, I'm tired, there's no more rope and you can cuss me all you want. That's one of the things that's gonna change. I'm tired of all these restrictions on me. I'll do it my way or not at all. Now leave me in peace, I want to find my guys and get some sleep. I don't believe for a minute that it's all over, my gut says otherwise and I'm listening to it from now on. Every time I don't there's a disaster."

Ranma looked around, then called Shuba, asking where his team mates were. He wanted to see them in the worst way. He'd been asking Shuba for them but every time he asked for them Shuba told him that they were only a few minutes behind him. They never caught up and he was getting pissed.

Shuba gave him directions to find his friends saying, "They're really tired, they've been chasing you all over. You've just missed them or them you half a dozen times."

"Hey Ran-chan, you look like hell on a mop stick. Come here and sit down. Where ya been? We been chasin' ya all over the prefecture."

Rio made room for Ranma on a tarp they'd thrown on the ground. They all looked tired and worn, their clothing torn and dirty, but they also looked satisfied. Ranma sighed; he hated to disillusion them.

"Guys, I got rumblin's in my belly, so don't get too happy yet. We need to rest up and be ready. I may be wrong but I don't think so. There's still something bad out there somewhere."

"Damn, Saotome, you're a real bundle of joy. I was hoping that we'd get to go back to the Compound and see the end of that trial, get some food and sleep in. No chance, huh?"

Ranma flopped onto his back and rolled his head from side to side, "Don't think so. Just rest here. We'll find someplace to sleep and maybe get something to eat after we wake up. I don't think I could eat just now, I've been using too much ki."

Ten minutes later Conroy came back with bad news: there was no place for them to sleep. All the available room was taken up by the injured or by big wigs from various contributing forces.

Ranma was already asleep, curled up on the tarp with his head pillowed on his hands. He was shivering slightly. In his exhausted state he was having trouble regulating his body heat so he was getting cold. He had snuggled up to Rio as the warmest body near him, so Rio just rolled onto his side and backed up to Ranma, giving his body warmth to him.

Vignette

"Hey! What the hell. Why are these men sleeping on the ground with out any blankets or sleeping bags."

"They're on the ground because you and all the other Brass got the billets: they're just grunts and they don't deserve to sleep warm and dry. After all, they're just common guys. The one's that are getting killed so you assholes can look good."

"Excuse me! Who the hell are you?"

"Name's Hibiki Ryouga, I'm just another smart-ass kid."

"You're one of those George guys, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why don't you go away and stay out of the theater? You're all just useless: unless you know how to kill a demon, you've got no business any where near the fighting."

"Well, you're right, but we all needed to see exactly what you're dealing with. The reports are all so fantastic they're hard to believe. I believe them now and I'll make sure that my government gives you all the funding the budget will allow."

"Hn. That's good. Sorry if I was rude. We're all tired and spread way too thin."

"No problem. I'll make sure they get blankets."

"Excuse me. You better wake up and eat this before it gets cold."

Ranma woke with a violent flinch. He knew it was impossible but he was sure he'd heard Akane's voice. Rio patted him on the shoulder and that was when he realized that he and Rio were in a most compromising position. He was curled up on his side with Rio wrapped around him in what was usually called a spoon.

"Huh? Akane? I'm sure . . ."

Ranma looked up and sure enough that was Akane looking at him with a surprised and disgusted look on her face. He decided something.

"Ranma! You pervert! What are you doing? Who's that guy wrapped around you?"

Ranma hoped Rio would play along. He sighed and stretched, when Rio didn't let go of him Ranma poked Rio in the ribs gently.

"What's the matter, Bishie? Who's the girl?"

Who her? Oh, she's just my ex-fiancee. She always called me a pervert so that's . . . .

Akane's scream scared the birds out of the trees and made half the command post jump. "Are you crazy?"

Rio pulled Ranma into his lap and Ranma poured in on thick. He curled up against Rio's chest and, tucking one hand under his chin, he batted his eyelashes at Rio and sighed, "Oh, Rio, you make me feel so nice. I just love waking up next to you."

Rio cuddled Ranma like a girl and stroked his back.

Akane made a shrill squealing noise, "Ranma what are you doing? I didn't . . . I mean. "

Akane took off like a rocket headed . . . away.

Ranma saw the rest of the guys, they all looked like they were about to explode. Every one started laughing. Ranma scrambled off Rio and just rolled on the ground.

"Oh, my! Oh. Geeze! I'm gonna die. I bet we set her therapy back a year. Thanks Rio, I owe ya one big time. The look on her face was worth . . . .I'm not sure I'm gonna ever forget."

"Who was that girl? Is she ok? I mean what was that all about?"

Rio wanted to know exactly what Ranma had been up to, he had an idea but back story was good.

"That was Akane my violent, tomboy, ex-fiancé. I'd like to know what she's doing up here but it really don't matter. The story is, she was always calling me a pervert and beating me up, so when she caught me and Rio in a spoon I took advantage of it and now she's gonna be havin' fits forever and serves her right. Besides did you see her face? I thought I was gonna pass out from laughin' . Thanks, Rio, for keepin' me warm and all. I really appreciate it."

Rio grinned at Ranma. He was used to waking up cuddled up to someone male, when you were cold you were cold and any source of warmth was welcome. He'd even woken up with dogs when he was stationed in Siberia.

Ranma reached over and snagged the box Akane had been carrying. It had coffee and food in it so he handed things around. He wound up holding two 'somethings' wrapped in paper. They looked like really big spring rolls. He unwrapped one and eyed it for a minute.

"Ranma! Not that end. Start at the open end or you'll have a real mess on your hands. Here."

Pete reached over and rewrapped the thing for him. He was now looking at an open end with the other end folded under.

"What the . . . what is this thing? I never saw anything like it before."

"It's a breakfast burrito. American style. It's got scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, onions, cheese and salsa in it. They're really good and not too messy if you don't bite the bottom out first. Just eat it."

Ranma took a hesitant bite and decided it was better than good. He gobbled his two down and drank his coffee. Then he looked in the box to see if there was anymore.

"I'm still starving. Someone go find some more of those while I see if I can't get Shuba on the com and find out what's goin' on. I hope I'm wrong but I'm sure there's something else out there somewhere. I just don't think we're gonna get off that easy."

Ranma tried to get Shuba on his radio, but no go, he got some guy who didn't know who he was except that he was on the contact list. The man told him that he was a Com Spec and only filling in while Shuba got some sleep.

Ranma asked the Sargent if there was anything going on and was told that they were beginning to break down the post because there was nothing but mop up to do. He told Ranma that they should all get on the next available transport and go back to the Compound.

After sending Pete and Doug out to scout around and see what was going on, Ranma headed straight for the Ammo Depot and requisitioned as much ammo as he could carry. He'd never lost his AK-47 even though he'd run out of ammo for it some time during combat. He didn't even remember using it. But he was sure he'd done plenty of damage with it because he carried three times the ammo anyone else could.

The report wasn't good: the command post was being taken down as fast as the construction crews could comfortably do it. Which meant that Ranma and his team were going to be without any support in about four hours.

Ranma went to see Shuba at the communications center. He told Shuba that he was sure that there was something else out there but he couldn't prove it. He just had a 'belly rumblin' that wouldn't let him rest.

"Ranma, I have reports from every observer we sent out, none of them have seen a thing. I think you just don't want to go back yet. Get over it. . . . sorry. I'm tired and I want to go home. We lost eight men, one of them from Ryouga's team and I want to see him. He needs us now. And you want to hang around in the mountains like some kind of wild Ainu or something."

Ranma shrugged irritably, he knew that Ryouga had lost a man and he felt really bad. He knew how he would feel if one of his guys died. But he just knew that they weren't out of the woods yet.

"I know. I'm sorry about that guy. Go back and tell Ryouga I am. But I'm stayin' up here for at least three more days. I don't give a flying fuck about that stupid trial. You can tell Steven where I am and tell McIntosh that I didn't escape, all he has to do is come up here and call me. I'll go back with him but not for three days. And I'm still hungry, so I'm not real happy either."

"Ranma, did you study to be so stubborn or were you born this way?"Shuba finished putting the last of his equipment in a box and poked Ranma in the arm. "I'll give Steven your message and let him deal with the trial and McIntosh. I wish you'd give it up but I know that every time I try to persuade you of anything it just makes you that much more stubborn. Knothead!"

"Yeah. But if I'm right, we're in real trouble. If I'm wrong, " Ranma shrugged and folded his arms. "It's just sixty more days in the stockade for me. I don't like the odds of me being right."

Ranma made it to the supply tent before it was packed up and requisitioned everything they would need for six days in the mountains. Tents, sleeping bags, stoves, provisions, you name it, he took it and the Sargent added things he wouldn't have thought of. When they were finished there was quite a pile of stuff.

"Ok, boy, where do you want this? I don't have time to carry it very far, we just got the pack-up call and I'd like to be out of here before dark."

Ranma eyed the pile for a second then got on his radio and tried to call Rio and Conroy to help him with it. The radio only fizzled with static. They'd packed up the radio tower and there was no signal.

"Damnit, I forgot we wouldn't have radio contact when they packed up the porta tower. Shit."

Ranma gathered up as much as he could carry then jumped as the supply Sargent held a pack basket out to him. "You study under Sherpas or something? Samuels told me about you so here's a basket I've never seen anyone use."

The Sargent helped Ranma pack the basket, it held most of the supplies and what didn't fit inside he managed to pack on top.

"You sure you can . . . Damn." Ranma had hoisted the pack like it was a normal pack.

The normal military pack consists of about sixty pounds of supplies, depending on which branch of service and how deep in the outback the platoon is headed. A two-hundred-pound-plus man is expected to be able to carry his pack at least twenty miles. Rangers, Seals and Special Forces are expected to be able to go at least twice that or more.

Ranma was carrying almost four times that and would have carried all the tents and other camping gear as well, but the sheer size of the load thwarted him. He just couldn't manage the bulk.

Rio offered to come back with Ranma for the next load but the expression on his face let Ranma know that he had an ulterior motive.

"Ok, Rio, unload before ya choke on it. What's up?"

"Ran-chan, I know you don't wanna hear this . . . Pete and Doug don't wanna stay. They will, but Eddie, the man from Ryouga's team? He was a friend of theirs and they're gonna want to go to his memorial. Skeeter and Dave went down a while ago with a truck of wounded. So it's just me and Conroy. I'll stay as long as I can but if I'm ordered back I'm goin'. . . don't want a stretch in the Stockade for refusing an order. Conroy, he'll stay no matter what, I guess. I'm sorry, Ranma, but I think as soon as mop up is done they'll order us back."

Rio had the good grace to look embarrassed. He didn't want Ranma to think he doubted anything he felt but they were careful moping up; nothing could escape their net.

"Rio, I'm not mad at ya. I know you're all tired and don't wanna stay here instead of goin' back to the Compound and gettn' clean and havin' a good meal and sleepin' in a real bed. But if we all go back somethin' really bad is gonna' happen, I just know it. I don't know what's goin' on but I got belly rumblin's and I'm stayin'. If you'll help me set up my camp you can all go back, if ya want."

Rio grumbled to himself, took the pack Ranma had made up while they were talking, and started back to where Ranma had decided to make their camp. He would stay until he was ordered back but if he got orders he was obeying them. He felt it was a good compromise.

When they got back to the camp sight Pete and Doug were already gone. Conroy conveyed their apology, they'd had to leave or they wouldn't be able to go until tomorrow and they would miss the memorial services.

"I'll stay as long as I can, but I'm like Rio, I go back if I'm ordered to. I'm not windin' up in the stockade for refusing a legitimate order. I really feel bad, but there it is."

"Damnit, will you two quit apologizin'. I don't want either of you in the stockade. Even though I could use the company. If you're ordered down, you go. I'm staying until I'm satisfied there's no threat. Maybe I'm just bein' paranoid. I hope so."

Excerpt from Report Submitted by Agent Downs.

Has absolutely no sympathy for anyone. Any inconvenience to self is met with extremely childish behavior

So that left Ranma, Conroy, and Rio, camping out in the mountains, waiting for something that might not happen.

Rio started laying out the fire pit while Conroy and Ranma started zipping tents together. Two one-man tents could be zipped together to make a two-man tent and since there were three of them and they had six tents it made sense to make themselves as comfortable as possible.

"Damnit! It won't track. I've got the damn thing caught again." Ranma couldn't get the zipper to zip up properly. The zipper kept getting caught on the cover flap, he'd started it three times already.

"What's the problem? Need help?" Conroy came over to see what the problem was.

"I can't get this zipper started. It keeps getting caught in that damn weather strip thing and hanging up."

Ranma shoved the tents into Conroy's hands in frustration. Conroy took it and tried to show Ranma how to work it.

"You just run your finger behind the zipper and you can feel if it's getting caught or not. Here turn the whole thing over. We taught you how to do this."

"I can't feel the damn thing."

Ranma rubbed one hand with the other. It made a rather loud sandpapery sound like leather rubbing on leather.

Conroy reached out and took Ranma's hands in his. Turning them over he felt the palms and then the tips of his fingers. Ranma's hands were heavily calloused. The tips of his fingers had pads of callous on them, as did the first two knuckles; there was also a pad of callous that ran from the base of the palm of his hand, below the thumb, all the way across the palm and around the side to the tip of his little finger.

"Holy hell, boy, what have you done to your hands? I've never seen anything like it." Conroy was astounded, he had heard of people like this, martial artists who had callouses this thick. But he'd always thought they were urban myths.

"I do a lot of breaking and hard arts. Without these callouses I'd break every bone in my hand with one punch. You all made fun of that cream I use and I didn't say much, but without it I couldn't make a fist or open my hand all the way. They get stiff."

Rio walked over to see what was up and one look made him whistle

"Wow Ran-chan . . ."

"Rio, I wish you'd quit callin' me honey. It's weird."

"Honey? Well hell. . . .you know you're cripplin' yourself?"

"Yeah, I probably won't be able to feed myself by the time I'm seventy. If I live that long."

Conroy choked, "What the . . . it could get that bad?"

Ranma rubbed his hand and shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe. The Old Ghoul is like three hundred and she's still good to go. But if she don't do her katas everyday she gets down."

"If I take care of myself and don't get too many stress tears, I'll be good for years. But some guys get so crippled up they literally wind up in a chair. It's a chance ya take when you decide to practice the arts. But the hands will go sooner than any other part of the body. That's why I do kata every day, especially punching."

"If I keep workin' out, I'll just keep gettn' better and better. If I stop, I'll lose ground and one day I'll be so stiff it'll hurt just to move. But that's way in the future. I probably won't live that long. So . . "

Rio exploded. "Damnit Ranma, don't be such a fatalist. Find out what you have to do to live long and not get all 'stove up' as you call it."

Ranma looked at Rio and Conroy who were both looking at him like he'd said the moon was made of cheese or something equally weird.

"Well . . . one thing is not to get eaten by a dragon or somethin'. I'd like to live forever or at least die in bed with great-great-grand children beggin' me not to go. But in this business one careless move and it's all over. Tell me it's not so."

Conroy eyed Ranma, he just hoped Ranma wasn't going pessimistic on them. That was a good way to get careless and then dead.

"Hey enough of this. It's depressin' an' I ain't Ryouga. Can we have spaghetti for supper? I like that and there's lots in the MRE box."

Rio looked at Conroy who shrugged, the best thing to do for Ranma at this point was to let Ryouga know about their concerns and leave it to him to deal with. In the mean time they would be as supportive as they knew how and let Ranma know that he could depend on them.

"Ok, spaghetti it is. I personally don't care that much for it. There's not enough herbs in the sauce and it's too sweet, but what the hell. We're gonna be up here for at least three days so tomorrow Rio and I'll flip for choice and looser can choose next day. "

Rio zipped the tents together and Conroy started rigging the ropes; when Ranma saw how the guy ropes should be staked down he picked up the stakes and told Conroy to forget the hammer, he'd set the stakes himself. He punched the stakes into the hard, stony, mountain soil without even thinking about how unusual it was.

Conroy poked Rio, in all the time they had been working with Ranma they'd seen plenty of unusual things but he could still amaze them. That was one reason they were still up in the mountains instead of down in the Compound.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I wasn't going to end this chapter until we saw the beastie but it's getting way too long. Sorry

Latin for "Hail Cesar, we who are about to die, salute you". Ranma is not in a good mood in case you didn't notice.


	33. Chapter 34

Disclaimer; I don't own Ranma

Thanks again to my Beta Niana Kuonji sorry I'll do better. I've been told I can screw up a two car funeral.

Chapter 34

"Crap!"

Ranma woke tangled in his sleeping bag and spent several minutes trying to get untangled without tearing the bag. Finally getting unwrapped, he crawled out of the tent and stretched, yawning.

"Rio, if there isn't coffee I'm gonna . . ." Ranma accepted the cup with a sign of content. It was nice to have company on this, especially company who actually helped out.

He would work out, then come back, eat lunch, then try to patrol the valleys. He knew something was up here that didn't belong. He just couldn't find it.

"Ranma! Come see what I found. I've never seen anything like it before."

Ranma finished his coffee and went to see what Conroy had found.

What the Sergeant had found was a striking board. Ranma eyed it for a minute, then laughed.

"I knew this area was familiar. Now I know why. I trained here when I was younger. Pop built that striking board for me when I was about twelve."

Conroy eyed the thing for a minute and rubbed the back of his head. What was this? It looked like a gate or something, only it was solidly set into the ground with three horizontal boards about chest high on Ranma.

"You used that when you were twelve? How's it work?"

Ranma just nodded and squared up to the apparatus. He stood about six inches away from the boards and touched the tip of his middle finger to it. Then he punched it. The thunk raised Conroy's hackles and he shuddered as he realized that Ranma was going to punch it again.

"Hey don't do that! Are you crazy? You'll break something."

"Nah, it's made of ebony. I won't break it. It's lots better than punching trees. I don't have to worry about killing the tree."

Tap, thunk. Tap, thunk. Tap, thunk. It went on for a good hour as Rio and Conroy listened to Ranma torture himself.

"I can't stand it. He's ruining his hands. I'm gonna go stop him."

"Sarge, ya can't. He's a big boy and he knows exactly what he's doing. He's making sure he can fight whatever he runs into and you know that we'd do the same thing if we could. We can't diminish his efforts just because he's a kid. He's a better man than the two of us put together. He's been fighting all his life and when he was given a chance to get out of it he turned it down cold. All he'd had to do, right at first, was tell Steven he wanted out."

"Rio?"

"Yeah."

"Sometimes I hate you."

"Me, too."

Vignette

"I've been reading some of the testimony Saotome gave on his training. Did you know that his father used to tie him up in the dojo and leave him over night?"

"Damn it, I wish he wasn't in prison."

"You crazy? Why?"

"Because then I could find him and beat the shit out of him."

"Look here: says the old goat took a strap to him too."

"Well, now we know why he doesn't think it's all that unusual to be beaten. It's a wonder he's not mean as a snake. Instead he has no idea of his own worth."

Ranma came back to camp wiping sweat from his chest with a small towel. He looked at the coffee pot and grunted his disappointment. He wanted some more coffee.

"Ranma, explain something to me. Why did you stand so close to the target?"

"Because I need some practice in short strikes. If you have plenty of room to get up momentum, it's easy to generate a powerful punch: got lots of distance to build up speed. But with short punches you need to generate power in a short distance and I haven't practiced that like I should have. Pop was always keepin' me at a distance, so I'm gonna take advantage of the situation and get in some practice and work on keepin' my calluses built up. Is there any antiseptic? I got in a coupla bad licks and skinned up a knuckle."

Ranma held out his left hand to show the third knuckle skinned nearly to the bone.

"It's not too bad. It'll heal in a day or so."

Rio just got up and walked into the woods, swearing. Ranma watched him go with a puzzled expression on his face.

"What's his problem? What'd I do?"

"What makes you think you did anything?"

"Well . . . when I'm around and people act like that, it's usually something I did. I haven't the faintest idea why; but I know it's so. I'm just a shit magnet, that's all."

Conroy felt like choking someone. Or several someone's, starting with Genma and ending with Downs. Ranma was convinced that everything that went wrong near him had to be his fault. And the way he'd been raised was why.

"Ranma. You're a valuable person, and even if you weren't the best martial artist in the world, you'd still be valuable. Why don't you believe that?"

"Who, me? I'm good at what I do. I'm the best there is. I just understand that the price I pay for being this good is pain. I learn quickly and I'm really good but I've been studying since I was old enough to understand what Pop was tellin' me. So stuff hurts, so what? If I want to be good I gotta work out. I gotta practice and the price of mistakes is pain. Pain is the body's way of tellin' ya not to do something. But as to being valuable? Yeah, but I'm no more valuable than any other person on the planet--except for a few, I'll admit I don't think some people are worth the skin to hold them together."

Rio came back in time to hear this and he looked at Conroy with such a disgusted expression that he had to turn his head away so Ranma wouldn't see him mirror it.

"I...Ranma, I just give up. I wish you could understand how much we all value you. We like you and respect you. You're just so used to being abused that you think it's normal."

Ranma smiled: he'd never thought of the way he'd been raised as abusive, it was just the way it was. When he'd moved in with the Tendos, Soun had made it plain that he wasn't putting up with some of Pop's more outrageous activities but only because it was too noisy early in the morning. That was when he'd started thinking about things, and when he'd come to the Compound he'd found out that not every learning experience hurt.

"Geez, guys, don't make a big deal out of the past; it's over, I lived through it and I'm stronger for it. Now is the time for me to make changes in my life. You won't see me putting up with stuff like I used to. But ya gotta understand something else. I can stand a lot of pain. Stuff that would have you flat on the ground I don't even notice. . .can we change the subject? I'm bored."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven slammed the drawer. He was tired of the trial and everything to do with it. He couldn't find Ranma and he wanted him to come down so he could tell him the good news.

"Dorie, go find Ranma. I don't care if you have to beat the bushes personally. I want him down here when Downs is sentenced. I want him to see that fuck in chains and I want him back where I can . . . well, shit, take care of him. He doesn't even realize how badly we all miss him. "

"Okay, I'll go up and find him. But you know how much I hate the woods. You owe me so big time. It's gonna hurt, boy."

"Yeah, but I love it. Go find him for me."

"Okay, okay. I'm going! Just stop slamming that drawer. You're going to bend it."

Steven looked at Dorie with one of those looks that only old married couples have.

Dorie requisitioned a helicopter and headed up country. It wasn't that hard to find Rio and Conroy. Ranma was another deal altogether: his two companions admitted that they didn't see him for most of the day as he worked out then left to patrol, looking for whatever it was.

Dorie just sat down and waited for him, it had been three days and Steven wanted Ranma back. She filled the men in on what they'd missed. Everything about the trial and ended up saying that Steven wanted Ranma back at the Compound. And he wanted him now.

When Ranma finally came back to camp it was almost dark and the helicopter was wanting to leave. Dorie had already had Rio and Conroy pack up everything, if Ranma wanted to stay he'd have to reset his camp.

"There you are, young man. You've led me a merry dance, I'll tell you. Steven is having fits. He wants you back down country now. It's been three days and nothing has shown up. You said you'd come back if we came for you."

Ranma hung his head--he'd been so sure that there was something. But he couldn't find it so he was ashamed.

"Okay, I'll come peacefully. Take me away."

Ranma was startled when Dorie just put her arm around him and drew him into a hug. After a quick fierce squeeze she took him by one wrist and hauled him to the helicopter.

"Get in, quick. If we don't take off soon I'm going to have to spend the night up here and I hate the woods with a passion. "Dorie got on the intercom, "Okay, guys, go. Go!"

The chopper took off and Ranma sat down on the nearest seat. He didn't want to go back, he hated the Stockade but he knew that if he didn't go back he'd lose everything he loved. He couldn't spend the rest of his life running. Anyway there was only sixty more days to serve, if they didn't add to his sentence for 'escaping'.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma yelped as Steven jumped into the helicopter and grabbed him. He almost ducked, then he realized that Steven was hugging him fiercely. Ranma hugged him back: it felt good, he couldn't ever remember his old man touching him except to hit him or punish him in some other way.

"Hurry up, you'll miss the sentencing. They finished the trial about noon and they've been deliberating ever since."

Ranma was glad he was at least half-way clean. He'd been bathing in the mountain stream and was wearing his last clean uniform. He looked every inch a proud young soldier.

"OK, Steven, I'm comin'. I don't want to miss it either. I'll get back to the Stockade and watch from there."

Steven grabbed Ranma by a wrist What is with these two and wrist-grabbing? and dragged him toward the court: he wanted to surprise Ranma with the verdict and sentence. He had no idea that Ranma didn't know that the two counts of assault filed in his, Steven's, behalf had been dropped.

"Well, I see you caught Saotome. We'll just get him restrained and . . ."

Ranma eyed the guard and then looked at Steven. Steven smirked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, if ya can get 'em on me, I'll wear 'em." Ranma's accent got worse and worse the madder he got and the swearing did, too.

Ranma stood and waited as the man wrestled with him. He didn't fight or try to get away, he just stood there, refusing to move or help in any way.

"Okay. I think that's enough. If you're through making a fool of yourself, we'll go into the court room. I don't want to miss the verdict."

Ranma looked at the frustrated guard and snickered.

When they entered the room everyone in it fell silent--this lasted for about ten seconds and then the whole room just stood up and saluted, standing at attention until Steven nudged Ranma in the back. Ranma returned the salute and the room sat back down as one.

Ranma was directed to a seat by the bailiff and smiled happily as he realized that he had Sunny on one side and Ryouga on the other, Kuno was next to him and the rest of the group was on the other side of Sunny. All his secondary team was behind him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Will you look at that kid? Every man in the room is at attention and he looks like he just got a new bike for Christmas."

"I think one of the reasons Downs hates him so much is because no one will ever put him down and keep him there."

"You're right. Proud, haughty, arrogant and brash, but he's got every right to feel that way. He's also kind, good hearted, brave, loyal, and totally guileless. I wish he was my son. I'd treasure him the way he should be."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The judges walked in and sat at the table. Everyone sat down, waiting respectfully until one of the judges should begin to talk.

"Well, I think I speak for both of my colleagues as well as myself when I say that this man is one of the worst criminals to stand before us for many years. I'm not going to waste the court's time, much less yours, by recapping the charges laid against this man. The significant ones are Forgery, Misappropriation of Funds, and attempted manslaughter. Combined counts for charge one: twenty one counts. Combined counts of charge two is ten; combined counts for charge three is forty six.

"If we were to go through each charge individually we would be here for a week. If anyone wants to read them for themselves they will be available for perusal, and now summary of sentences for all counts. Guilty on all counts of all charges; the combined sentence amounts to three hundred twenty four years. No possibility of parole."

The room went wild. Ranma just sat for a minute, then he started giggling. Not laughing or chuckling-- giggling. He didn't know if he was getting hysterical or what, but he couldn't stop. At least until Sunny wrapped her arms around him and hugged him hard enough to make his ribs creak.

"Oh, wow. I don't believe it, what a rush. Hey, Steven, thanks for letting me be here. We really got him."

Ranma stood up and headed for the door. "I better get to the Stockade myself. I just hope I didn't get any extra sentence for escapin'."

That was when they all realized that Ranma had no idea he was free. "Un, Ranma, just go. You'll get a nice surprise there. You really will and we'll be close."

So Ranma went to the stockade, but it wasn't that bad. He got to walk behind Downs as he struggled to walk. He didn't look very good, he was practically being carried by the guards.

When they got to the stockade Ranma followed them until they got to intake, then he turned aside and went to a desk, waiting for the man to look up so he could find out what he was supposed to do. Happily, he didn't miss Downs screams of fear as the man found out what an intake exam consisted of.

Ranma snickered--let the fool be humiliated. He even hoped it hurt, just a little.

"Hey, come back here!"

Ranma turned just in time to see Downs running down the hall toward him. He waited until the runaway was close to him and then he put his hand out in a halt gesture. A quick push created a wave of air pressure that knocked Downs back into the arms of the MP's who grabbed him, nodded to Ranma, and dragged Downs back into the intake area.

Ranma couldn't resist following him and when Downs managed to make another break for it he caught him by one arm and held him.

"Help me! I don't belong here, I was just doing my job!"

"Yeah, which messed with the lives a' everyone ya got near. I don't feel sorry for ya' in the least. Stay away from me in the yard 'cause I'll pound ya. I gotta go back in and I ain't takin' no interest in you an' your problems."

Downs drew himself up indignantly. "I can do anything you can."

Ranma looked at Downs for a long time, slowly letting his eyes wander over the overweight, out-of-shape executive-type.

"You're all blow and no go. You couldn't do on your best day, what I can do on my worst. Those guys'll eat ya alive . . . " Ranma turned to the guards. ""Keep your hands on him will ya? That's the second time in less than five minutes you've let him get away. What's the matter with ya?"

"Well, none of us want to touch him. He's just creepy. Sorry, we'll take hold of him from now on."

The two guards grabbed Downs and dragged him back to the examination room, kicking and begging.

Ranma snorted. He couldn't believe that the man was such a mess already. Life without possibility of parole? He might not serve a very long sentence. Or he'd be in hell for the rest of his life. I hope he don't die of a heart attack

"Saotome! McIntosh wants you in his office. Better hurry. He's having some kind of fit."

"Shit. I just hope they didn't add too much time to my sentence."

Ranma hurried, noticing that the MP didn't follow him, just watched as he headed in the right direction.

"Saotome, come in."

McIntosh couldn't believe the hesitant way Ranma came into the room. He looked like he was afraid he was in trouble. "What is it, Saotome? What's wrong?"

"Why don't _you _tell me? I know I just ran off from the trial. I told them I wasn't escaping but you never can tell with adults what they'll decide."

"Oh . . . I see . . . well. The news isn't good." Ranma sagged, he knew it.

"For us, that is. Steven never pressed charges against you, Downs did it in his behalf while he was suspended. Steven protested the charges so they were dismissed. With time served and time off for good behavior . . . you're free."

Ranma blinked at McIntosh for a second.

"Wha...? I'm free? I'm FREE! Yippee! Wow . . . oh . . . Wow! I can go? I don't have ta stay?"

"Yeah, get the hell outta my Stockade." Ranma turned to go. "Hey!" The boy looked back over his shoulder. "If I never see you here again, it'll be too soon. Now get goin'."

Ranma turned back and stood at attention, saluting McIntosh. McIntosh stood up and returned the salute with a flourish.

Ranma decided to take off fast before someone found out that there was some kind of mistake. Buck headed him off quickly.

"Don't run off just yet. You have to sign these papers, but you won't have to go back for your stuff. I packed it up for you."

Ranma signed the papers and grabbed his duffel bag.

Sunny nearly knocked him down when he got out the door. She grabbed him and climbed him like a tree, pressing her lips to his, she kissed him until he felt light headed. He dropped the duffel and wrapped his arms around her and kept kissing her, until finally he had to come up for air.

"Sunny, let me catch my breath, I'll drop ya. Gods, I'm so glad ta just hold ya. I missed ya so much. Damn it!" Sunny let her feet drop. The rest of the Brat Pack wanted their turn at him.

After hugging and back-slapping all around, Ranma said good-by to Rio and Conroy. Skeeter, Dave, Doug, and Pete stood back, shuffling their feet.

"What's the matter? Oh, hey! Guys, I'm not mad at ya. You did what you thought was right. If ya wanted to attend memorial services for a friend more power to ya. Come here!"

Ranma got the four men in a huddle hug then pushed them away gently. "Go back to barracks, get some beer. Whatever you want, I'm goin' home."

Sunny grabbed his hand and immediately started fussing at him. "Ranma, I don't know how you do these things to yourself! This knuckle is skinned almost to the bone."

The warm feeling of being healed made Ranma shudder. It felt so good! "Sunny that feels so good I don't even know how to start tellin' ya."

Sunny just grabbed his hand and danced ahead of him all the way to the dorm; the rest of the group just followed along behind, hiding their amusement.

Ranma went to his room, he'd missed it so much he couldn't believe it. He put his things away and went to the common room. Everyone was waiting there for him.

Amidst all the idle chatter they enjoyed that night Ranma learned several things.

"Kuno hand me a piece of that pepperoni will ya?"

Kuno handed over the requested pizza.

"I finally passed that damn calculus test," Ranma remarked around a mouth full of pizza. His pleased smirk made everyone else uncomfortable.

"Uh, Ranma, Downs pulled a fast one on us. We didn't have to go that far. He had us in college courses that we shouldn't have to take for three or even five years."

"Yeah, well, now it's over with, we got the credits didn't we? I don't see a problem. Now we can take stuff we're interested in without havin' to argue with some idiot about it."

Kuno chewed his pizza without much enthusiasm.

"Hey Kuno get cold on ya?"

"No, I'm just not very hungry. While I am delighted that you are free, I have problems."

Ryouga reached over and patted Kuno's knee. "Don't let it get ya down, pal. Now that Ranma's out, I'll go see what I can do. Leela will just love your house."

"What's up?" Ranma looked from one to the other.

"Well..." Ryouga looked at Danny and Kuno who both nodded their heads. Ryouga went on to explain that Danny was going to Officer Training School (OTS) in America soon and Kodachi was getting so out of hand that Kuno wanted him to go see if he couldn't do something for her.

"So I'm going with Kuno day after tomorrow and I think Danny is leaving next week. And where I go, Leela goes."

"Steven know about this?"

"Yeah he's the one who made arrangements for Danny to go, there's to be no more stealing. If we want a magical item, we just condemn it and go get it. There's an international law. I don't remember exactly what it is supposed to cover but we're stretching it to fit."

"That's good, but Leela is going with you, how's that work?"

Leela smirked at Ranma and took Ryouga's hand in hers. "Tatsu being what he is and my job getting gone like that, I've been elected his keeper. So my new job is to make sure he gets where he's supposed to be, when he's supposed to be there. It's soo hard. I just can't . . ."

Ryouga shut her up by kissing her. For quite a long time. When he was done he started fussing a little. "Well, Ranma you don't need to look so smug. I'm tired of being the Eternal Lost Boy. I can't find my way around the Compound without help and if I wind up in an area with no signal I'm in real trouble. Leela just stays with me almost all the time, anyway, so she might as well get paid for it."

Ranma held up his hands in a sort of 'don't hit me' gesture.

"I didn't say a word, did I? If you can get away with it more power to you . . . um, Kuno, when you get back I want to get you to teach me how to talk better. I heard the guys in the Stockade talkin' about me. They said I sounded like a real hick. Back from the stick, head too thick. That kind a thing. I got to get myself together. I can't be doin' what I'm doin' and sound like a hick kid. I need to command respect up front instead a havin' ta smack some fucker around t' get it."

Kuno nearly laughed in Ranma's face. The more upset he got the worse he talked. He sounded almost civilized most of the time anyhow, but when he got mad or something, he went from a little crude to almost incomprehensible.

Genma had kept him away from people for the most part, so Ranma had only talked to him and a few farmers. Most of his other Sensei hadn't let him talk much, they'd only given him orders. In consequence Ranma had never had much practice talking until he'd been in middle school and by then his speech patterns were set.

"I'll be glad to help you. First thing, don't talk when you're mad. You really sound like a rice planter-- your accent's awful. You should calm down first. It's a good idea anyway. Gives you time to think about what you want to say. Also, try to use complete sentences with other people. I'm afraid that this group has gotten into the very bad habit of communicating in partial sentences."

Ranma chewed and swallowed hurriedly, he'd thought that Kuno was going to talk longer so he'd crammed most of a piece of pizza into his mouth.

"Sorry about that. I figured you'd lecture for a while. I really appreciate it, Kuno . . . if I'm stepping out of line tell me. What's wrong with Kodachi? She really losing it?"

"That last sentence should be 'Is she really losing it?'." Ranma nodded. "And yes, she is really losing it in a big way. I left Sasuki in charge of her but he can't seem to manage her anymore. No medication that we've tried seems to work. Some of them aren't right, they have too many side effects, and others, when we get the dosage strong enough to control the symptoms, they make her lethargic. It's getting out of hand rapidly and the Kuno businesses need my attention as well."

"Businesses? I thought your Dad took care of that?"

"My Father couldn't take care of a setting hen with a nest of chicks, much less a thriving business. I've been taking care of the family fortune since I was fourteen. That's why it's in as good a condition as it is."

Ranma thought for a while chewing slowly.

"So . . . gimme a slice of that Hawaiian will ya. . . . you're going to take Ryouga and Leela and catch up on things at home. Danny's goin' to OTS, so that leaves me and Sunny and Shuba here to take care of business on this end."

Ryouga sighed, he hated to leave Ranma so soon after he got out but he'd been putting off going to see Kodachi so he could be around for Ranma, and glad he'd stayed too. But now they couldn't put it off anymore.

"Yeah, I hate to leave ya so soon but we really need to get Kodachi under control--she set the house on fire and the only thing that saved it was Sasuki. And you shouldn't be so negative. You can depend on Steven, really, he just got off track a little. I know you suffered for it but in the end it helped us all."

"Yeah. I'm not mad at Steven anymore. Like ya said. But there's still something up there and it ain't good. I'll just bet it shows up the day after you both leave. I got belly rumblin's."

"Ranma, that's just too much pizza and excitement and not enough rest. I'm tired." Ryouga stretched and yawned.

Kuno looked at his watch and declared that as it was almost 3am he was going to bed.

"Hey where's your watch? Saotome, get that watch back on your wrist right now."

"Damn, I forgot it! I took it off because it pinched me between it and the handcuff. I'll put it on before I go to bed."

"Okay. By the way I like the bracelet around your arm like that. It shows off your muscles. Very sexy."

Ranma grabbed Sunny, nuzzled her neck and mock snarled, "I'll show you sexy." Sunny squealed and smacked him with the flat of her hand. Ranma looked around, an elaborate expression of puzzlement on his face. "A fly? Did I feel a fly land on me? Or maybe it was a flea."

"Oh, you! Go to bed."

Ranma went to bed in his own bed and slept like a log.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Hey, Ryouga, what's that noise?"

"Dunno. Better find out."

"Hist! Sunny, you hear that?"

"Yeah, don't worry."

The deep rumbling noise continued, soft but persistent.

Kuno and Ryouga edged further into the room; Sunny was leaning against the wall close to the head of Ranma's bed, watching him sleep.

"What is it?"

Sunny turned her head and smiled slightly. Then both boys recognized the sound. Ranma was purring.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yeah I know Ranma's a civilian and he's not supposed to salute anyone or be saluted. It's a fiction so they do.


	34. Chapter 35

Standard Disclaimer. Don't own Ranma.

Chapter 35

Ranma didn't wake up till almost noon. He'd had a really hard last few weeks and he decided not to set his internal alarm at all. He'd just wake when he felt like it for once and he wasn't going to train at all (the first time in more than three years).

When Ranma finally did wake up, he felt eyes on him immediately. Sunny was leaning against the door frame snickering softly. His huge yawn had alerted her that he was waking up.

"Hello sleepy head. I thought you'd never get up. You feel better?"

Ranma grinned at Sunny and held out his arms, three short steps and Sunny launched herself into them with a glad cry. They sat on the bed just hugging and enjoying each other's touch. The door was open so they didn't even go past French kissing. But Ranma paid the price for even that much.

"Koi? . . . you better get offa me. I'm gettn' too hot."

Sunny dragged herself off Ranma, taking her time and doing her best to make sure Ranma understood how reluctant she was. Ranma finally scooped her up and deposited her on her feet with one last kiss with which he made sure she still had her tonsils.

"Love ya. But I'm about to starve and I can't be seen in the mess with a hard on. I'm takin' a very cold shower . . . Off. Off."

"Okay, Mr. Prude. But I'll have you know that Steven has gotten rid of the proctors. I'm glad, too. I always felt like I was in some kind of reformatory or something."

Sunny left to let Ranma take a shower and get dressed. When he came out of his room he was dressed in jeans and a t shirt. He looked just like any other muscular sixteen-year-old boy. He ambled over to Sunny, plopped down between her spread knees with his back to her and handed her a hairbrush with an elastic around the handle.

"Brush this mess, will ya? And use the elastic on the handle. No more improvising with threads and stuff. I hate it when my hair falls into my eyes. I ought to cut off about half of it."

Sunny griped Ranma by his bangs, tipped his head back and kissed his nose.

"If you value your life, you won't even contemplate that. I'll tell you when you need a hair cut. If you want your bangs trimmed, I'll do it tonight. Ok! You understand me, Mister!"

"Ma'am, yes ma'am! Not a hair, not unless you do it. I promise."

This is so different from before. Akane was always at me to cut it. And Soun kept tellin' me I looked like a girl. Now Sunny loves my hair. I'm truly happy for the first time in my life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sunny and Ranma wandered into the Mess Hall and got trays. Ranma, as usual, got at least twice what anyone else would even consider eating. As they made their way to a table Ranma scanned the room. He was always doing that and supposed he always would. They got seated and Ranma was just getting ready to dig in when he saw a man with a steel fan.

Ranma approached the man with the fan. He knew the man didn't have a clue

"Hey, you know you're not suppose to have weapons in the mess. That fan's not a good idea."

"What? It's a fan!"

"Come sit with us and I'll explain, 'K?"

The man sat with Ranma and Sunny. Ranma reached over and took the fan. "It's a steel fan, a real martial arts weapon. Looks innocent doesn't it? But you can cut a man's throat with it before he even knows he's threatened. See?"

Ranma opened the fan all the way and showed the ribs were made of steel. The silk covering was prettily embroidered and the whole thing looked so innocent.

"May I?"

Ranma reached over to Sunny's tray and took her apple. Tossing it into the air Ranma flicked his wrist twice, plucked the quarters of the apple out of the air and deposited them back on the tray.

"Thank you, Ranma-kun."

Sunny smiled proudly. He was so smart and very clever as well. He was teaching the man about weapons without embarrassing him or getting him on the defensive.

"Wow! I never saw anything like it. I just thought it was pretty so I got it for my girl in America."

"Well, the fan _is_ considered a woman's weapon, but here in Japan men use fans like this too. They are just everywhere. One of the reasons women use fans is they are pretty. Look."

Ranma suddenly changed into Ranko. He looked at the man over the edge of the fan and batted his eyelashes, smiling seductively. Then he rolled the fan between his fingers, snapping it closed and then open again. He flicked the fan through a series of beautiful passes then closed it and tapped it on his chin, tilting his head coyly.

"Meanwhile you're bleedin' your life out on the floor."

The man looked down and realized that Ranma had cut all the buttons off his outer shirt and shredded his neck tie.

"Shit. I didn't even notice. You are one scary dude. Man or woman, I don't want ya mad at me. I really don't want to meet you in a dark alley.. . . Um.. . . Well, thanks. I think I'll take that fan and put it in my foot locker, then I'm changin' my shirt. Will you autograph it for me?"

Ranko blinked, changed into Ranma, and autographed the shirt with a very bemused expression on his face.

"Geeze. That guy wanted my autograph. Like I'm a rock star or somethin'. I don't believe it."

Sunny giggled; things were getting back to normal, she'd missed this so much. Ranma always seemed to attract this sort of attention. But she didn't mind.

Ranma laughed softly.

"Well that went over well. I was afraid he wouldn't listen. I think making it funny really helped. What do you think?"

"I think that man listened to you better because you didn't make the lesson threatening . . . Ranma, what are you up to?"

"I don't really know I just . . . well, never mind."

Ranma tucked into the tray of food in front of him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"I wonder if the kid would consider teaching an advanced class of some kind. He really took the sting out of that lesson."

"He's a George. I don't know if he'd teach a class or not. But it wouldn't hurt to ask. He's really good, not cocky or arrogant, treated that guy real nice."

"If he's a George I'd really like to get him to teach advanced classes. The advanced guys come in with all kinds of misconceptions. That kid could really cure them without doing a lot of damage, especially since he's not conceited in the least."

(A/N Snickercoughwheeze)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Oh! Ranma, I nearly forgot we have to go to the school today classes start tomorrow so we have to get our schedules for right now it's just you, me and Shuba everyone else is going away. Danny will be in America where he's already graduated in their system Ryouga and Leela will share tutors with Kuno and Kodachi I personally don't see why we have to have a schedule when it's going to be just the three of us but there you are."

"Damn it! Don't tell me I've spent the whole break in the stockade. I swear, just once I'd like to get a break. I've passed every test they've thrown at me and come back for more, but if they don't cut me some slack soon, I'm gonna kick over the traces big time. I'm runnin' for the hills."

"Ranma don't freak out on me. There's only this one more class: we have to take Socialization or social skills 101 it's really fun stuff like ball room dancing and how to write thank you notes and what fork to use, art classes that kind of stuff. I guess they're trying to keep us from turning into a bunch of little savages."

Ranma laughed so hard he nearly choked on his rice.

"Too late for me. Maybe I could teach a class. Advanced Barbarism, what do you think?"

"Yeah and survival, any martial art, sharp shooting, troop management, I'm sure there are a lot more but I can't think of them. You're smart Ranma I wish you would quit selling yourself short like that."

"I'm not sellin' myself short or any other way. I just know what I am. I don't have any social skills outside what it takes to stay out of jail." Ranma froze for a second. "Most of the time, that is. Pop didn't think I needed them and neither did I, now that I know better, maybe that class isn't such a bad idea after all."

Sunny just smiled at Ranma, she was looking forward to this class, ball room dancing with a skilled martial artist like Ranma was going to be fun. They'd been swing dancing for a while, but the dance club had fallen apart from lack of members, so there was no excuse for her to dance with him.

Ranma smiled back, he wanted to dance with Sunny. She was so light and quick on her feet it was a pleasure to dance with her. Not like the wrestling match dancing with someone else had been. He hadn't liked skating with her either. I wonder if Sunny can skate

Ranma gathered the remains of his lunch and, stacking Sunny's tray on his, took the trays to the drop off. Gathering Sunny under his arm he headed for the school building.

"Sunny?'

"Yes, kichu koibito."

"Suki da."

"Yeah, Suki da."

They walked in companionable silence for a while.

"Hey Sunny, you know why they have such a big building for maybe six or seven kids?"

"Yeah, it's the old class building. They built a new one for the Compound proper last year. There's a lot of guys that want to take College classes, get a degree in something or the other. We don't spend all our time fighting and training, do we?"

"Nope. But I hate to see a whole building wasted that way. They should do something better with it than keep it for just us. "

"I think Steven had plans for it before Downs and his crew got involved in it. After we pass this last requirement, we're all college freshmen and we'll be attending classes in the new building . . . what do you want to do? Do you have any idea?"

"Whaddya mean . . ."

Sunny interrupted Ranma softly, saying, "Ranma you mean to say 'what do you mean' I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt you, but I'm going to. Your English is really good, but when you speak Japanese you sound like a harvest hand or a dock worker. You can't keep that up. I . . ."

"Yeah, I've seriously considered speech therapy or whatever. I need to learn to talk better. I can't command men if they don't respect me and they won't if I sound like a ignoramus. I been listenin' to guys around me, especially Kuno. Since he's been on medication, he's not half bad and he talks real pretty. I ain't never gonna sound like him, it's not in my nature I don't think. But I think I'm gettin' better. Ne?"

"Aho! You'll learn. All you have to do is listen to people like Steven and Dorie, Kuno's good too, but I can only stand so much of him, he's too high class. But, Itoshii, you can do anything you put your mind to. Just don't get down on yourself I don't care how you talk."

"Thanks bishoujou . . . what the hell!"

Ranma felt a cold chill, the shadow that had passed over him wasn't a bird, not even a very big bird made a shadow like that.

"Sunny, go into the building and don't come out. If you need to go anywhere, use the old maintenance tunnel. Go on! Call Steven and tell him the shit just hit the fan."

Ranma started after the shadow and caught up to it just in time to see what it came from. Something nasty swooped down and snatched a screaming man from the ground; a chopped off scream and a crunch left no doubt what the thing wanted with a human.

"Marisheten save me!"

Ranma looked up at the beastie that had just flown away with a full-grown man, eating him like a chicken wing. He'd never seen anything like it but he knew it was in the Deamondex, nothing like that could have been missed.

Steven slammed the phone down on the cradle so hard the whole phone shattered. He couldn't believe they had just lost a man to a wyvern. The observers all agreed that it was the only thing possible.

"Steven I told ya somethin' was still up there. Fuckin' great big flyin' snake thing, where's a deamondex when ya need one. I'd . . ."

"Quiet!" Steven exhaled thought his nose slowly, "It's a wyvern. We got more shit on our hands than a . . . . son of a bitch. I wish I'd listened to you, now we've got to find that damn thing and kill it. But it took off in the direction of Nerima. Fuck! "

Steven slammed both hands down on his desk. They were in a lot of trouble. Kuno and Ryouga had taken Kodachi out of the country to see a specialist. They would be out of touch until their plane landed and it had to be all over before they had time to get back, it would take at least six more hours for them to get where they were going and they might not even get in touch for another day or two. So, through no fault of theirs, they couldn't be counted on.

That left Steven and Ranma to deal with a wyvern.

Ranma expressed himself thoroughly, forcefully, and foully; starting with Shit and going rapidly down hill from there. When he calmed down, he read the 'dex and sighed.

"Well stick a fork in me. Can you find that thing or do I have to do that too?"

"No, we've got choppers in the air searching right now. If we can't find it soon, it's going to disappear again."

"No, it won't, it's hungry and it's gonna hunt. All we have to do is follow the string of missing cattle and people, the one's who got snatched into empty air."

Just then Sunny walked in with a pot of tea and three cups. She poured tea and handed a cup to Ranma and another to Steven, taking her own cup, she raised it to the two men and watched as Ranma sipped. Steven smelled the tea and declined any.

Ranma knew exactly what he was drinking, it was a combination of herbs Sunny had compounded herself. It would calm him without making him logy or confused in any way.

He admitted that he needed it badly. He was pissed, at himself, at Steven, the chopper pilots and maybe just life in general.

"Damn it, this is one of those times I wish I didn't know anything about martial arts. I've got to figure out some way to kill that thing. I'm so not looking forward to trying to kill a nest of those things."

"They're solitary."

"That's not what the 'dex said." Ranma yanked on his pigtail grumping, "Kami! I wish you'd get that thing updated."

"The 'dex was programmed by a bunch of poor saps trying to make sense of a bunch of contradictory info. They did the best they could. But Wyverns are solitary. They may start out in a nest but the strongest eat the weaker ones until there is only one left. Either because it ate all the others or because the smarter of the weaker ones ran. So we have a solitary Wyvern, hungry and hunting."

"Well, okay, but, . . . "Ranma sipped his tea and tried to calm down. "Get Shuba to put his skills to work. I don't know exactly what needs to be done. I just know we need to find that thing and kill it quick. What if it breeds? What if it's pregnant? Makes me nervous just thinking about it."

"Wyverns are oviparous. Make a nest like a giant chicken and sit on it." Steven hoped to lighten the mood by comparing the wyvern to a chicken.

"Well, whoopee ding dong. Makes me feel a lot better. A giant, scaly, man-eating chicken thing sitting on a nest full of eggs that'll hatch out into more of the fuckers. Great."

"Ranma, calm down." Steven reached over and patted Ranma, "We'll find it. Then you and I go out and kill it. Simple."

Ranma slammed his cup down so hard it broke. He clenched his hands into fists, eyeing the bits of china.

"Yeah . . . real simple, but not easy by any means, and how many men are we going to lose trying to get to that thing. It's a grizzly. So . . . "

"Ranma it_ is_ a grizzly, so there's no use in any men getting anywhere near it. You and I and enough men to get us up to wherever it is. That's all. We need a chopper crew and maybe four other men, if that. Depends on where it holes up."

Ranma took a deep breath. Steven was right. He hated to think of all the men who'd died trying to kill something that they didn't have the tools for. But now that they had gotten a handle on what was what, they knew more or less what they needed to do the job. Thank Marishiten for small favors.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma looked around the communications center. Every man and woman in the room was busily doing their best to find the Wyvern. He wasn't sure why he was here or Steven either. They didn't know how to use any of the equipment and were more or less just getting in the way and bothering people.

"Steven let's get out of here. We're just in the way and bothering people who really don't have the time to answer 'are we there yet' every ten seconds. We're just wasting our time and making nuisances of ourselves."

Steven eyed Ranma wearily and then nodded, Ranma was right. He didn't know why he felt the need to be here, there were other things he could be doing that were a lot more useful. Like making sure that his pack had everything in it that he might need. Or even just taking a nap so he would be rested.

"You're right. Let's get out of these people's way and let them do their job in peace. I'm going to go find Dorie and make hay. Then I'll be around. You can get me on my phone I'll keep it with me and turned on."

Steven stretched and yawned as he walked out the door, he was going to find his wife and then he was going to take a nap, eat something and wait for a report.

Ranma headed for the bath house, he was so tense, he decided to see if a hot soak wouldn't loosen up his muscles. He'd keep his phone with him, like Steven, and with his watch/tracer they could find him easy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma had just gotten into the tub and started to relax when someone rattled the shoji calling, "Can we come in? There's not enough room in the other tubs. Do you mind?"

Ranma groaned, but the voice sounded like an older man and they usually weren't trouble, so he called out to them to come in.

"As long as you don't wanna fight with me or nothin'. I'm tired and I don't wanna put up with no shit."

At the soft gasp, Ranma opened an eye, then sat up straight. The men wanting to join him were the three judges. He looked them over and liked what he saw. Even thought they were desk jockeys, they were all three well set up, older yes, but still firm and hard, with good muscle tone and lean, hard bodies.

"Well? Ya gonna stand there like a bunch a storks or ya gonna get in the tub? Sorry about starin', I know it's rude but I'm kinda used to checkin' people out."

The three men slid into the tub with a minimum of fuss. They had all been in Japan for a while, so they were used to the idea of communal bathing.

Ranma leaned back and let the men get comfortable, he wasn't going to bother them and he assumed that they weren't much interested in him either. Was he wrong.

"Look, I know you're probably sick and tired of stupid questions, but I've got a bump of curiosity that's as big as I am. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a bunch of personal questions."

Ranma opened his eyes and looked at the man for a moment. Then he just closed them and nodded, saying, "I don't mind questions if you don't mind me sayin' it's none of your business on some of them."

"Okay. Fair enough . . . I don't understand how the slavers made you do what they wanted, you're so strong, I'd have thought you'd just walk off."

"The collar they put on me bonded to my chi and they used it to punish me. It was like being dipped in lava, only it just went on and on. I'd pass out and wake up wherever they wanted me. And every time I disobeyed they'd not only punish me but someone else too. They found out that I'll do almost anything to keep someone else from sufferin'. I can't stand that. So they used it against me."

All three judges looked disgusted. That was something despicable, to use Ranma's soft heart against him.

"Say, I can't just keep thinkin' of you as the three judges, you guys got names or did they forget to issue ya one in your duffel."

"Damn, sorry, I'm Prescot, he's Anderson, and this jerk is Foreman. We're all generals. Just call us by our names, saying general get's confusing real quick, besides we're all off duty now and sharing a tub. Seems a little stupid to stand on formalities when we're all naked and wet."

"Ok. And you can call me Ranma. But please don't call me Ran-chan. Only my best friends call me that."

"I looked that one up, I don't get it. Ran is wild, chan is little, right? "

"Yeah, but the best translation is honey."

"I give up! Next question. You said the slavers made you kill, how the hell did they do that? That's just about the most disgusting thing I've ever heard of."

"Well . . . it's a kinda long story. But you've been nice to me, so here goes. They made me a gladiator, I wasn't much interested so I just refused to fight the guy they set me against. Instead of lettin' him kill me, (I was kinda hopin' they would), they took us both out of the arena and made me watch them whip him to death. Then they told me that was what would happen to every opponent I didn't fight. So the next opponent I went up against I killed as quick as I could so he wouldn't suffer. That made 'em really mad, so they took me to the arena of punishment. They nearly whipped me to death and the crowd really loved it. They worked on me for most of a day. Wore out two whip masters . . . Hey! Do not puke in the tub."

Anderson had to leave the room rather quickly. Ranma watched as he stumbled out, holding one hand over his mouth and the other over his stomach.

"Geeze. Don't ask questions if ya can't stand the answers. What set him off?"

Prescot and Foreman eyed Ranma as he stood in the tub watching Anderson leave. His scars showed up bright and gruesome in the daylight streaming in through the open shoji leading to the engawa.

"Um . . . I think the view of that was what finally did him in. His son is about your age. Last question, if you don't mind?"

"Ask."

"What were you doing in the sale barn that Steven raided? I'd have thought you were too valuable to get rid of."

"I'm so stubborn that even gladiatorial trainers couldn't cope with me. So they decided to get rid of me cause I was giving the other slaves ideas. They were sendin' me to the mines. By the time Steven got to me I was such a mess you wouldn't believe it. "

Anderson came back in, apologizing and asking what he'd missed. When he was told that they were going to send Ranma to mines somewhere, he just slid into the tub and submerged himself, mumbling something about raiding mines and skeletons.

"So when Steven rescued you . . . what?"

"What? By then, I didn't trust anyone and all I wanted was a safe place. Steven could make anyone feel safe and he knew what I'd been through, except he was born a slave . . . you tell anyone and I'll hunt ya down and strangle ya in your sleep . . . so we got along real good. He put up with me being a total head case and I trusted him with everything. He even understood about the mushrooms."

"You don't strike me as a drug user type."

Ranma blinked at the man for a second, then laughed.

"I _don't_ use drugs. I was so messed up I was afraid I couldn't control my temper. I never lost control of my powers so I was really afraid of what I might do if I lost control of it. I decided to 'take myself out' if I was ever convinced I was dangerous to others."

All three men just stared at Ranma for the longest moment. Then Foreman growled, "You mean you were going to commit suicide if you thought you might be dangerous to others?"

"Sure. It's not like I _want_ to die. But I won't have innocent blood on my hands. Not again. Not ever."

Ranma looked so fierce that Foreman was glad he was on their side.

"So, Downs is so full of shit his eyes are brown. I'm so gonna enjoy turning him over to Levenworth."

"What's that? I heard of it before, I think."

Ranma scrunched his face up, trying to remember what he'd heard, and looked so young that all three men wondered how anyone really looking at him could have called him a violent, psycho killer. He looked about twelve, maybe.

"Levenworth is the American military prison, the one where the big time offenders go. We're sending him to America to stand trial for crimes there. But he's also got to go to Russia. We're sending him there last." At Ranma's raised eyebrow he explained, "It's just tradition, but the last country who has a trial usually retains custody of the individual and they serve all their sentences in that country . . . Russian prisons are quite bad. Ever heard of the Gulag? Probably not as bad as a slave whatever you call it. But not good."

Ranma threw back his head and laughed. He laughed 'til he couldn't catch his breath and sank down in the tub to snicker occasionally until Anderson asked his question.

"Son, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? You can't do this forever."

"If I live long enough to be old, I'll probably teach. I'd like to try to teach anyway. There will be times when there aren't any incursions. The experts say they won't last long, probably only six to nine months. But incursions will be spread throughout all the different jurisdictions. I'm only responsible for Japan and parts of China, Vietnam, places like that, so I'm not spread as thin as some. There's only two people for all of Russia and half of China and the Chinese aren't real forth coming with intel. There will be times that I don't have anything to do but train, and I don't like over training, it doesn't help, so I might as well teach what they can learn."

Ranma's phone went off and he reached over the side of the tub to get it. All three men flinched as he showed them his back again.

"Moshimoshi. Saotome . . . yeah . . . no . . . I'll be there in twenty minutes, unless you need me sooner. No . . . sayonara."

Ranma folded his phone up and got out of the tub. He sauntered toward the door, wringing the water out of his hair. He picked up a towel and wrapped it around his waist and draped another over his shoulders.

"Would one of you please tell the other two to close their mouths? I know I look like shit but I really don't appreciate that particular horrified look, kinda sets my teeth on edge, if ya know what I mean."

Three mouths snapped shut with almost audible clicks.

Ranma turned to them and smiled that sweet, shy smile that made anyone who saw it wonder how anyone could think he was anything but a true angel.

"I gotta go kill a wyvern. The damn thing has gotten into Nerima. Even those people are panicking. See ya around? Or do ya have to go somewhere?"

Ranma left as casually as if he was going to a movie, rubbing his hair with a towel in preparation to braiding it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Damn it, he looks like they really did try to whip him to death. Downs said he was just dramatizing himself. A more unprepossessing boy I've never seen."

"Yeah and he just wanders out like he's going to hang with his friends and says 'I gotta go kill a wyvern.' Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill one of those?"

"No, and I don't want to."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma gathered up his equipment and headed for the chopper that would take him to Nerima. He knew exactly where the Wyvern was and he was trying to organize his thoughts.

Getting to the thing wasn't the problem, getting it to follow him out of the city so the damage was contained to crops and grass land was.

Ranma climbed into the chopper and belted himself into the flight engineer's seat. He could see out of the chopper from here without being in the way of the pilot or copilot.

The flight into Nerima didn't take more than 15 minutes, at most. Ranma didn't enjoy the flight in the least, all he could do was worry about what he was going to see when he got there. And it was as bad as he'd feared. The wyvern was in the outskirts of Nerima, tearing up the area like a, well, like a monster should. It was wrecking buildings in a clear attempt to find food.

The creature was approximately twenty feet long, but it was impossible to tell exactly, because its snake like body was in continuous motion, coiling and flexing. It had two legs, somewhat chicken like, if a chicken had razor sharp, eight inch long claws. It had a tail that was half again as long as its body, tipped with a dark stinger which dripped poison. The wings were bat like and flapped slowly. It had a crocodile like head and ferocious teeth. All in all not something you really wanted to mess around with.

"See if you can't get me close to the thing. I'd like to get a better idea of how big it is."

As the chopper circled, Ranma got more and more angry, he should have found the thing before it got this big. There was no excuse for him. He'd been lazy, incompetent and down right stupid. If he'd only insisted that Steven order a thorough search, but he hadn't and now he had to face the consequences.

"Can you tell how big it is? I need some kind of reference. Damnit, that thing has to be really big."

"Ranma, that wyvern is at least twenty feet long. And the wing span is around twenty. It's skinny, but judging it by the same parameters I'd use on a cow or horse, it has to weight in at around six to eight tons. How are we going to kill something like that?"

Ranma watched the wyvern as it strode through the streets tearing up buildings like doll houses. It was going to be hard to get out of the town, never mind kill.

"You don't have to kill it. I do. All you have to do is get it out of town. If it will follow us, we could lead it somewhere and I can get my hands on it. Buzz it. Maybe that will get it moving in the direction we want it to go. It might chase us, like we're rivals or something."

The pilot thought about that for a second, then agreed with Ranma and buzzed the wyvern. They found out that the wyvern's wings were for more than flying. The heavy knuckle made a good battering ram. It almost hit the chopper and the wind of its attack made the chopper shudder.

"Shit! That's all I need, a crashed chopper. Look for some way to get it to follow us without us getting attacked, okay?"

"Sure thing Ranma. I'd rather _not_ crash. We also have to watch out for the rotors. Once that's stopped this thing flies like a rock. I can't auto rotate with a broken rotor."

The chopper pilot managed to get the wyvern to follow the chopper by flying around its head like a fly buzzing a horse. It aggravated the thing and while it roared and snarled, it followed the chopper, but it was clear that the chopper could out-fly it easily. Ranma directed the pilot to lure the wyvern as far as he could but also to try finding a place that the wyvern would want to stay.

Vignette

"May I have a pot of tea please?"

"Yes ma'am; it'll be a few moments. We're watching the wyvern on TV, Would you like to see too?"

"No, I don't need to watch my useless son make a fool of himself."

"Saotome is your son? You're Nodoka?"

"Yes. I am. May I please have my tea?"

"I'll call the manager."

"Onna, I'm the manager of this establishment and as a representative of the entire staff I'll have to ask you to leave the premises. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone and we are refusing to serve you."

"Excuse me?"

"Please leave now. Thank you."

Ranma took a stand right outside the valley they'd managed to lure the wyvern to, he had his AK-47 and more ammo than anyone else could carry. He'd gotten ammo before he'd come down from the mountains and never turned it in.

Ranma used the AK-47 to shoot the wyvern's wings. He sighted in on the delicate bones that held the wings open. He knew that he couldn't do anything about the large muscles that flapped the wings, but no amount of flapping would do anything if the wings didn't extend. He used bursts of fire and fractured the bones of each wing, crippling the beast so it couldn't fly, then he sat down and cried like a baby. It made him sick to do such a thing, but what else could he do? He couldn't let it get into Nerima.

"Fuck, I hate this part of my job. Why couldn't I be a damn librarian or somethin'?"

Ranma sighed and started watching the wyvern. It was just laying down moaning, but he knew the minute it saw him, he was going to have the fight of his life on his hands. The feet were clawed and even thought the small bones of the wings were broken that didn't mean that it wouldn't use them as battering rams. He'd had run-ins with geese when he was a kid so he had some idea of how wings could be used as weapons.

The wyvern screamed and tried to fly away, all it could do was flap the main beam of its wing, the membranes wouldn't extend, they stayed folded. Ranma could see that it was in pain, he was going to have to kill it soon, he couldn't stand to see it in pain, especially since he'd caused it.

He swiped the tears off his face with one hand, holding on to the AK-47 with the other. He'd sent the chopper back to base, so when he heard the whap of a rotor, he knew Steven was on his way.

Steven jumped out of the chopper and ran over to Ranma. He saw the tears on his face and jumped to the only conclusion he could. Ranma had to be wounded badly to be weeping like that.

"Where are you hurt? How bad is it?"

Steven pulled Ranma into his arms and started to pat him down, looking for the wound.

"I'm not cut. It's just. . . .oh, shit, Steven. Some of the things I have to do make me sick. Look!"

Ranma pointed to the wyvern. Steven looked at the monster. It was still trying to fly, beating it's useless wings and screaming.

"Damn it."Steven grimaced, he knew it was necessary to keep the wyvern from flying but this was hard. "I wish you'd waited for me. I've done things like this before. You shouldn't bear the brunt of every attack by yourself."

Ranma gripped the front of Steven's shirt with one hand and clutched the AK-47 with the other, they wound up kneeling, facing each other, with the AK-47 trapped between them as Ranma buried his face in Steven's shoulder for a moment while he collected himself. Steven wrapped his arms around Ranma and patted his shoulder.

"Look, kiddo, it's hard, I know it is, but if you didn't keep it from flying away we'd be hunting for it again while it ate everything it could get its claws on and continued to grow. The more they eat, the more they grow, with no limit on how big they can get. This one is just past impossible. I've killed wyverns before, well, just two, but I know the only way to get it is for one of us to distract it while the other jumps it and breaks its neck. If we could cut its throat it would be better but it's too big for steel to affect. "

Ranma rubbed his face with both hands, cradling the AK-47 in the crook of his elbow. He looked at it like he'd never seen it before then handed it off to a waiting man. He started at the sudden realization that there were several men standing around waiting for orders.

Steven obliged by issuing several orders. He had a small tent set up and com gear installed. He also had camera gear set up to film the kill so they could study it later. Ranma spent the time watching the wyvern and getting himself back together, he would always regret the necessity of crippling the creature but he had priorities and human life came before a monster that didn't belong in this plain of existence.

"Steven, I've been watching it while you set up. It's not going to go far. It's in pain and angry, if it sees anything that vaguely resembles a threat it'll attack right away. If you draw its attention, I can cut its throat. I think a straightforward attack, then try to get it to extent its neck."

Steven peered at the monster and realized that Ranma was right, the wyvern was in pain and couldn't fly. It was going to attack anything that got near it. If they could get it to extend its neck it would be vulnerable. But how was Ranma going to . . . Neko-ken!

"Ranma, are you sure that the Neko-ken will work on something that big? I mean, I've seen you cut steel but that thing is just so big. Its neck is three times as thick as my body. That's pretty thick. Can you make a claw that long?"

Ranma was squatting behind the same log as Steven, head to head with him, so Steven could see the doubt in his eyes.

"I'm not sure I can get it with one cut. I'm not sure how long a claw I can make. But if it takes more than one cut I'll just have to keep at it until I get it. We can't let it just suffer like this. I hate this, I really do."

"Ranma, we do what we have to. I'll cut around to one side of it and see if I can't attract its attention, get it to stretch out its neck, you get into position. . . Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get eaten."

"You, too. You'll give it indigestion."

"I'm gone."

Steven stood up and started for the other side of the valley. Using brush and small trees as cover, he managed to get to the other side of the creature without being seen. He showed himself for a second. then ducked back out of sight. Ranma's voice in his ear told him that he wasn't in the right position. He needed to come back more so that Ranma was at the side of the beast.

Ranma watched as Steven teased the wyvern into extending its neck in an effort to bite him. Steven jumped back several feet and lunged to one side so the wyvern's teeth snapped on empty air. But it was really close.

"Ok, that's got it. Keep at it until I get on it. Then get out of there. I'll probably need more than one cut. I really wish my Mouku Takabisha worked. Why won't it?"

It was really a rhetorical question, but one of the techies answered it anyway. "Ki attacks are too close to magic. Magic don't work on them either because they're magic themselves. It's odd. I'd like more research on the whys myself."

Ranma wanted to swat the guy, he didn't need all that chatter and said so.

The wyvern had extended its neck while they were chattering and Ranma jumped on it. The thing's neck was as thick as the barrel of a Percheron. It was like riding a scaly horse. Ranma reached down and cut as deeply into the neck as he could. The wyvern writhed and that was when Ranma realized that the wyvern had a spine like a snake, the thing coiled in on itself and tried to sting him. It missed, but only because Ranma had lightening reflexes and really good peripheral vision.

Ranma felt the poison drop on his back as he jumped off and ran--he shed his armor and watched it smoke.

He didn't bother to get new, if the poison melted it he needed the slight extra speed advantage more that he needed the armor.

"Steven, I need you to try again. And watch out for the tail."

Steven teased it again. And again it tried to strike him. Ranma mounted its neck and called the full Neko-kun. Drawing on all the power of his extraordinary physique and every ounce of nerve he had, he started cutting at the wyvern's neck. It sounds so simple, 'he cut its neck' but he was cutting on a jumping, bucking, writhing creature; the scales were slick, like a snake's scales. And it also tried to scrape him off on the ground, trees, and rocks. It clawed at him with both feet and rolled on him. All the while he clung grimly or jumped off and back on again. The wings were also a consideration, as it battered at him with the bony elbow joints which also had a razor-sharp dewclaw.

That dewclaw caught him across the back just under his shoulder blades, cutting him from side to side. He yowled in pain and fury and sprang back in with all four limbs cutting hard. He bounced off the wyvern as it tried to sting him again and wound up slapped away by one of the flailing wings. The wyvern screamed in triumph and snapped at him. Ranma managed to flip around so that he kicked the wyvern in the nose instead of winding up in its mouth. He used the kick to launch himself away, landing several feet outside the combat zone. He crouched panting and waited to see how much more damage he was going to have to do to the beast before it was dead.

"Koi . . . don't do anything I won't like."

Sunny slipped up to Ranma, touched him gently and ran like hell. She had healed Ranma and taken off again before he could do more than twitch. She didn't want to be in the way, especially of a wyvern but Ranma couldn't be allowed to bleed out.

The wyvern darted in Sunny's direction and left itself open to Ranma's attacks. He landed on its neck again and clawed deeper into its flesh. He wondered if he was ever going to get to the spine. He was hoping to sever it, but it was deep in heavy muscle and it was hard going. Steven hadn't had to deal with such a big wyvern if he had killed it by breaking its neck. Ranma wasn't going to have it that easy, he was going to have to do it the hard way. Or the harder way, depending on how easy you thought it was to kill even a small wyvern.

"Fuck. Even crippled it's mean as I am and strong. I've got to call the ultimate Neko-kun. I've got to become a cat completely. I just hope I can come back." Ranma called Steven on the com. "Steven! Listen quick and don't argue with me. I'm going to use the ultimate Neko-ken attack. Get a trank ready. I may not be able to come back by myself. And don't fool around. I may not be safe."

Ranma closed his eyes and began the ingeii that summoned the pure Neko-kun. Without the summons he couldn't use the Neko-ken ultimate attack. He began to radiate an aura that made Steven and Sunny cringe. It was fierce, primitive, and cruel--this was _not _Ranma, it was a throwback to a more violent time, a warrior capable of ending this fight.

The snarl Ranma let out started deep in his chest, it rumbled its way into his throat and exited, sounding like tearing canvas. It made the hair on the back of Steven's neck stand up and gave him gooseflesh. Sunny just made a small eep-ing sound and readied a trank.

Shit, shit, shit! We are really in big trouble. If Ranma can't come back from that Neko-kun, we can't control him.

Ranma pounced on the wyvern and began clawing; the Neko-ken claws glowed and his entire body was enveloped in a red shadow-like image. It looked somewhat like a saber-tooth tiger. As he clawed at the wyvern, it clawed back, it writhed and coiled, trying to constrict Ranma like a python but every time it got a coil around him, he slithered out and continued his attack. They rolled across the valley, snapping and snarling, clawing and scratching. It sounded like two gigantic cats and they were in a fight to the death. As they rolled, the observers were horrified to realize that they were leaving gobbets of flesh behind. Ranma was literally clawing the wyvern to bits before their eyes.

The squalling and shrieking was horrible and they were moving so fast that no one could tell exactly what was happening. Ranma was thrown out of the fight twice and both times he rolled across the bloody grass and landed sprawled in a panting heap. Both times he scrambled to all four feet and sprang back into the fray, snarling.

Ranma finally managed to cut through to the spine and with a crack like a cannon shot he broke the bone and destroyed its medulla oblongata, cutting off all the nerve impulses, ending its autonomic reflexes. It didn't scream or struggle anymore, it just collapsed, dying with a shudder.

Ranma was pinned under the body and had to struggle with the heavy dead weight. But when he got out he was still Neko-kun and just crouched beside his prey for a moment. When Steven approached him, he snarled at the threat to his property. Steven crouched near Ranma and turned his head, offering his neck in a submissive gesture that got the cat's attention like nothing else could have. Ranma sniffed at Steven then sniffed the wyvern, he sneezed and humped his back at the stench of the already rotting body.

Sunny approached Ranma carefully, holding a hypodermic behind her back. If she needed it, the needle had enough tranquilizer to knock out Ranma. But he didn't seem interested in attacking anyone, all he wanted to do, it seemed, was crawl into her lap and curl up. Sunny arranged herself so that Ranma could get on her lap, and when he did, she started petting him. He began to purr and soon fell asleep.

While Ranma was asleep Sunny healed his wounds and held him while the medical team cut his clothes off and gently washed him. He was covered with wyvern blood and had smeared it all over Sunny as well.

When they got his clothes off him, it was plane that he again had a nasty scar. The cut across his back was now a smooth slightly reddened mark but other than that he was in good shape. They managed to get him dressed in jeans and a t shirt.

Sunny helped them get Ranma into a cot and left to clean herself up, it only took her twenty minutes or so but she was suddenly aware that she wasn't alone in the tent where she was attempting to do something with her unruly mass of hair. Ever since she'd quit dyeing it different colors it had grown and was now below her shoulder blades.

"If. You. Ever. Do. Something. That. Stupid. Again. I'm. Gonna. Spank. Your. Butt."

Every word was bitten off with fierce clarity. Ranma was as quietly furious as Sunny had ever seen him. He wasn't red in the face or especially rough but Sunny knew he meant business.

"Don't ever touch me when I'm fightin' again. I coulda killed ya an' then what would I do? Huh? Ya never thought 'bout that didja. I'm half Neko an' half crazy an' you're touchin' me. Stupid!"

Ranma wrapped her in his arms and pressed his forehead to hers. He looked mad and scared and sorry, all at once. Sunny realized that what she had done had put her in danger but it had also put Ranma in danger as well. If he'd hurt her, he'd have been so distracted that he would probably have gotten himself killed.

"But Ranma you were hurt, you could have bled out on us. . .again. What am I supposed to do when you wouldn't come in to be healed before you go back into combat? If you bled out . . ."

"I'm sorry, Koi, I promise I'll come back to be healed if I can. But if I can't, I don't want you in a combat zone. Promise me."

"Okay! Suki da."

"Suki da you too."

Ranma snugged Sunny against his side and headed for the chopper that would take them back to the Compound; he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And I'm not done yet. But the chapter is so long I decided to cut it here.

Aho Dumbass

bishoujou pretty girl

suki da I love you Ai shiteru is for old fogies and romance novels or so I've been told.

Marisheten Goddess of the Northern Star, Protector of warriors and solders

Itoshii Darling

Ingeii ritual gestures used to begin a ki attack

Shoji sliding screens used as doors.

Engawa porch

Pictures of wyverns:

take out the and put in /

http:elfwood.lysator.liu.seartgagabrielleredwyvern1.jpeg.html This is the one I thought of as I was writing.

http:elfwood.lysator.liu.seartmamadisonwyvern.jpeg.html This one shows the stinger


	35. Chapter 36

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.

Chapter 36

"Ranma! Wait! I hate to do this to you but Steven said not to let you leave until you saw the reporters."

"Damn it! I'm tired and hungry and I wanna go home."

The Captain nodded, "I'm sorry I know how it is but Steven said to tell you that someone had to do it and he isn't worth shit when it comes to reporters. He tends to glower at them and scare them into fits ...I've seen it myself. He just doesn't do well and we don't need a bunch of negative publicity."

Ranma kissed Sunny and put her on the chopper, she offered to stay but he knew she really wanted to go back to the Compound and get cleaned up; he'd gotten assorted wyvern bodily fluids on her. They'd had clothes for him but nothing for her. He wasn't sure why and intended to find out.

Ranma reached for his shoulder and realized that he didn't have his com system on anymore. Instead he pulled out his cell and speed dialed Steven.

"Talk to me!"

"Steven, you shit. I'm gonna get ya for this. Why should I have to deal with some reporter? And why didn't Sunny have any clean clothes on site?"

"Sorry, sorry. I just hate talking to reporters, I don't deal well with them. You look so young and harmless I just dumped them on you and I know I'm being a shit but I . . . well, never mind, you just have better control over your mouth than I do. And I'll find out why Sunny didn't have clean clothes. At least we had some for you and your cell and wallet."

"Yeah I got both and even clean boots. But . . . well never mind. Reporters it is. But you owe me big time."

Ranma snapped his cell closed and looked around trying to find the reporters. If he had to do this, he wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. He was going to want coffee and lots of it. He knew he shouldn't drink it, it made him jumpy but if he was going to have to do this on only a half hour nap, he was going to have to have it.

The Captain whose name tag said 'Jackson' walked away from the chopper with Ranma, talking all the way.

"We've set up in the barn just around the curve. I hope you have better control of your temper than Steven does and more patience, too. These people are all in the public eye in a big way and they could really help us. We can't hide the incursions anymore, they're all over the place and people are starting to ask uncomfortable questions. Steven said you had ideas about how to handle this. We've all tried to hide it so long that reporters don't trust us anymore.

"That's why we're turning as much of this over to you and your group as we can. Just be as up front as you can, there isn't any confidential info anymore. It is just causing more trouble than it is worth."

"Ok. I got the drift. Talk to the nice people, be direct, don't answer questions that haven't been asked. Right? . . ." Captain Jackson nodded. "Got it. Wonder where I heard that before. Get me coffee."

Ranma accepted the cup of coffee from Captain Jackson with a soft sigh. "Thanks man, I really need this. I'm really gettin' tired of runnin' on half an hour sleep and an MRE. Ain't civilized."

Fifteen minutes later Ranma entered a barn which had been set up as a make shift studio. He stopped and the Captain bumped into him.

"Hey! I ain't no public speaker. I thought ya said . . . shit. I don' wanna do this." Ranma realized he was whining, took a deep breath, snarled and headed for the podium.

"Ladies and gentleman. I ain't a public speaker. You'll probably have trouble understandin' me. So . . . you ask, I'll answer to the best of my ability . . . QUIET!" Ranma shouted them down. The babble of questions was totally unintelligible. "I'll answer questions for twenty minutes. If you ask the same question as someone else, I'll call on the next person. Listen up and pay attention, I don't intend to repeat myself and I'm not puttin' up with a bunch of shit. I'm a martial artist, not a diplomat."

The reporters questioned Ranma relentlessly, he only had to put one man in his place and he did it with a flat cold look that made even that callused individual back down. Ranma answered questions and kept an eye on his watch. He intended to start out the way he was going to handle all interviews. He was in charge and no one had better challenge him.

"OK! People. . . . People. HEY! Shaddap! I said twenty minutes and I meant it. You've all had a chance to ask two questions and your time is up. I'm leaving. I'm tired, hungry and frankly you're beginning to get on my nerves. And that ain't a good idea. Any more questions can be submitted to Department 13 in writing and I'm sure someone will get back to you. Now, good-bye."

Ranma just walked away from the podium but every reporter in the room seemed to take that as a license to stick microphones, tape recorders and cameras in his face. He breasted the crowd of shouting, shoving bodies and snarled. No one wanted to make way for him so he handled it quite well. He jumped over the mass of people, landing in the rafters of the open barn, then he dropped to the floor on the other side of them and went out the door, headed for Nerima at a dead run.

"Fucking reporters . . . fucking Steven . . . fucking . . . damn it, I still got belly rumblings. What the hell is going on? I got the wyvern and it's supposed to be solitary . . . I . . . hhnn."

Ranma looked around, he was hungry and still tired, but he knew if he got some food in him he'd be good for the rest of the day. So he looked for some place to eat.

Ucchan's, okonomiyaki. I'm going there

Ranma knew exactly where he was, Ucchan's was only a few blocks away. He could roof hop it easily. He decided to do just that since he was_ still _hungry, and pissed, and tired; and he knew that, after reporters, he wasn't going to get to sleep until it got dark. And that made him even more angry, which made it even less likely that he was going to wind down any time soon.

Ukyo turned from the pass-through and nearly swallowed her gum. She hadn't seen Ranma since Genma had taken him away to that 'summer camp' and she'd been really angry about the letter he'd sent her. But she and Konatsu were getting along really well, so she figured out that trying to force Ranma to feel something that he didn't was an exercise in futility.

"Ranma long time no see, sugar. What can I do ya for?"

Ranma smiled; Ukyo was going to take it easy on him, she was a good friend and he was happy to see her.

"I'm hungry. What's the chance of getting a special?"

Ukyo made Ranma a special and one of his favorites, he had that 'I'm about to starve' look around his eyes. Ranma watched as Ukyo make him two okonomiyaki, one special and one shrimp. His favorite. She put them in front of him and smiled.

"Hey, don't look so sad. I admit I was mad at first but . . . shit happens you know. Besides, I should have known that you'd never settle down in a restaurant. Konatsu and I are . . . a thing. How you doin'?"

"Pretty good. Just . . . well, you'd never believe me in a million years."

Ranma stopped talking and started eating. He wolfed the food down like he was afraid someone was going to steal it. Konatsu reached for the plate and found his wrist pinned to the counter top, luckily not to the hot cooking surface.

"Don't . . . don't touch my plate until I give it to you. Long story, nasty too. Just be really careful with an ex-slave. 'K?"

Konatsu blinked, then just nodded and went back to the back. (He had contacts and knew a great deal more than he thought Ranma might like)

"Slave? Ran-chan, what the hell are you talking about? And don't give me that shut-faced look."

Ranma finished his okonomiyaki and started talking; he told Ukyo everything as she cooked. She cooked, he talked, until he was full and finished.

"Well, I never in all my life. Genma better not ever show his face around here. I'll take a spatula to him, you betcha."

Ranma sneered at Ukyo. "Old Fart's in prison and not gettin' out anytime soon."

"Good."

Just then the door zinged and Akane came rushing in.

"Ukyo, call . . . Oh! Ranma I'm glad to see you. You better come with me."

Akane reached out to grab Ranma, who slapped her hand away without even thinking about it.

"What . . . Ranma this is no time to get pissy. There's something . . . some kind of animal in the warehouse down the alley. Come with me . . . please."

Ranma jumped up and headed for the door, hauling Akane with him.

"Where exactly? Show me but stay behind me."

"I can take care of myself, Saotome. I don't know exactly. Nabiki got a call from one of her contacts; she's already called . . . Steven, is it? She said to tell you, if I found you, that help is on the way, but if you have to make a mess, it'll be taken care of. What the hell is she talking about?"

"If I have to kill something big, it'll make a bigger mess than we ever did. Akane? . . . . Thanks for testifying for me."

"Well, you're welcome. We don't seem to get along, but that's no reason for me to let that nasty man lie about you. . . . Here we are. Hey mister what . . . Ranma!"

Ranma didn't wait for the men to tell him anything. He just walked into the warehouse and looked around. It was full of boxes and pallets, stacked in cubes, which made it extremely hard to see anything.

Akane came up behind him, but stayed out of arms reach. Clearing her throat, she waited for him to turn around and see her.

"Ranma. They say there is a really big, winged snake in here. I don't believe that. What kind of snake has wings?"

Ranma turned his attention back to his search. "Ain't one. But I just killed a wyvern about three hours ago. They're oviparous, and this one was mature. Real mature."

"Ovi . . . what's that? Where did you learn all this stuff?"

Akane looked at Ranma with new eyes. She'd been disappointed when she came to testify. Nabiki had said Ranma was really changed, but she'd wanted to see for herself. Now she was getting an eye full. Ranma was serious about this snake thing, not cracking jokes or being a jerk.

"In school. I've got my diploma and graduated with an A average. We studied some completely off the wall biology. And that included egg-laying reptiles of the mythological variety. Like dragons and wyverns and gryphons."

"You're not kidding me are you." Akane felt her skin crawl. "You really _are_ fighting dragons and . . . and . . .?

"Yeah. Can the chatter. Jump up into the rafters and keep an eye peeled, will ya? We need to find that thing and quick."

Ranma was disgusted with himself 'listen to my gut, Baka'. He was dressed in jeans, T-shirt and sneakers. He didn't have any kind of weapon and needed something badly.

(Baka! Baka! You know better than to go off without something.)

"Hssst! Ranma! I see it. At least I think I do. Over in the back, by the red boxes."

Akane made room for Ranma beside her on the rafter where she was perched, like a bird. She pointed to the area where she had seen the movement. Ranma looked where she pointed and saw a wyvern, he blinked and looked again. Then he snorted softly, wheezing so he wouldn't laugh out loud and scare it.

The wyvern was all of five feet long from nose to stinger. It was a hatchling, a very new one.

"Akane. I'm going to keep an eye on it. Go get me some duct tape. Hurry, before it gets away and I have to chase it. Go!"

"Hey! Who do you think you're ordering around?"

"Akane . . . this is_ not_ the time . . . never mind. I'll do it myself. Why should you be any different from ever before?"

Ranma hopped down from the rafter and rummaged around on one of the benches against one wall.

"Hey, Major. What ya lookin' for?"

The man had approached Ranma from the side so he could be seen. He peered at the bench and then at Ranma

"Duct tape. Got any? I need the high tensile strength . . . wide as you can find. Quick!"

"Duct tape? Got some of that stuff they call gaffers' tape. That do?"

The man rummaged under the bench and pulled out a huge roll of silvery tape about three inches wide and handed it to Ranma with a little bow.

"Yeah, that'll do fine. Now get out of here before you get stung. That baby isn't going to like what I'm gonna do to it."

Ranma took time to call Steven-- after he got back in the rafters where he could see the wyvern.

"Steven. I got a situation here. Found another wyvern. I need a truck that'll haul about . . . oh, say half a ton, maybe five . . . six feet long, wing span. Well, that won't make any difference . . . Huh? It's a hatchling. Haven't found any eggs yet, but once I get baby, I'll look around. Damn it, I'm not armed or armored. I'm wearing civvies . . . Yeah. No, just my cell. I'll switch my watch to active tracking so you can find me."

Ranma snapped his phone closed, fiddled with his watch for a second, then jumped from rafter to rafter until he was right over the hatchling. It was shifting from foot to foot nervously, making squawking noises under its breath. Every now and then it flapped its wings, flapping them back and forth in a strange fanning motion. Ranma realized that it was still too young to fly and was exercising its wings.

Akane had followed him and was peering down at the baby with wide eyes. She waited until he was done planning and started to move, then grabbed him by the arm.

"Ranma what are you doing? Let the experts take care of this thing. I think it has a sting in its tail. You can't keep going off half-cocked."

"Akane, let go of me. I _am_ the expert, and I don't go off half-cocked. I don't go off at all. If I did, I'd have smacked you into next week a long time ago. Do _not_ touch me again. I don't _like_ it."

Ranma jerked his arm out of Akane's hand and dropped to the floor behind the chick. A quick snatch and he had the tail in one hand and one foot in the other. Switching the foot in his right hand to the left, he taped them together with several wraps of tape, dumping it onto its side in the process. Dodging a snap from the slavering jaws, he taped the other foot to the already taped appendages. A slap from one wing stung him across the back. "Ow! You little fuck!" Ranma grabbed the muzzle and taped the jaws together, the wyvern butted him in the chest and sent him rolling, allowing it time to struggle to its belly. He used the momentum to roll to his feet and dodged another attempt to batter him with the knobby elbows, he ducked under the wyvern and managed to get both wings folded against its back. He taped the wings down and stepped back.

The whole battle didn't take more than two minutes.

Akane dropped down beside Ranma and tried to dodge around him to see the chick. He blocked her by standing between her and it. She dodged back and forth while Ranma tried to stay between Akane and the still struggling wyvern. It could still move its head and was determinedly trying to butt anything near it. Ranma finally grabbed Akane by the arms and got between her and the wyvern.

"Damn it Akane, fuckin' stop that. Son of a bitch! It'll butt you."

"Ranma, when did you start swearing like that? You didn't used to. You better watch out or your guardian will wash your mouth out with soap."

Akane stood with her arms folded, glaring at Ranma, alternating with trying to see around him

"I don't have a guardian because I'm an emancipated minor. And I'd like to see anyone wash my mouth out with soap. Damnit, stand still. If you want to see the fuckin' thing go back to the rafters. I've got to figure out some way to get the little mother on a truck without hurtin' it or gettin hurt myself. Got any ideas? And don't give me any damn smart mouth. I'm not in the fuckin' mood."

He turned around to eye the wyvern speculatively, ignoring a now fuming Akane.

Ranma hadn't turned his head from the contemplation of the small wyvern, so Akane's slap should have caught him by surprise, but it didn't. He stopped her slap by holding his hand up and allowing her to hit it instead of his face.

"That's the last damn time. Next time I'll fuckin' smack you back." Ranma stopped for a second, taking a deep breath and letting it out through his nose slowly. "I never hit you in all the time we were engaged. You really hurt me last time, and next time you hit me, I'll treat you just like I would a guy. I don't know what the hell is the matter with you. I know I'm a smart mouth and annoying as hell, but did you ever think that you annoy the shit out of me? All I want to do is protect you. This time from yourself. That wyvern could really hurt you. It's real strong and a good solid butt will knock you over. Get away from it and leave it alone."

Akane stiffened then sagged.

"Ranma, I'm sorry. We really can't even be in the same room for more than a little while before we start fighting. I know I'm not your type . . . I mean . . . well . . . "Akane blushed red and stammered to a stop.

"What?. . . Oh that. Rio is a friend and we got cold. You jumped to the wrong conclusion and I couldn't help but take advantage. That proves you don't know me any where near as good as you should. We like to laughed ourselves sick. I shouldn't have done it but I can't say I'm sorry. You're always accusin' me of bein' a hentai so..."

Ranma just walked away, leaving Akane steaming and trying to decide whether she wanted to smack him or just scream in frustration. He didn't act like he even noticed that she was mad. He just kept looking at the wyvern.

When the truck pulled up Ranma went to the door and grinned. Sunny had come back with the truck.

"How'd you find me so fast?"

Sunny hopped down and bopped him on the shoulder with her palm. Ranma caught it and kissed the palm.

"We traced your watch, silly. Why did you turn it on active trace if you didn't expect us to find it? Goof ball. Are you hurt anywhere?"

Ranma tucked Sunny under his arm and led her toward the warehouse. "I forgot about the tracer. I been a little busy ya know. I'm not hurt but you should see what I caught."

Sunny froze, looking at a steaming Akane, who was glaring at her coolly.

"Ranma, that's Akane isn't it? What's she doing here? You know we aren't supposed to allow civilians in a combat zone. You'll catch hell from Steven. That's one of only three offenses he'll really cane you for."

Ranma just shrugged, he knew he was going to get in trouble for Akane, but he also knew trying to get her to do anything he said was as futile as they came.

Steven walked up, took one look at Akane and gave Ranma a 'later for you' look. Ranma just shrugged, maybe he could talk Steven out of a canning. Then Steven saw what Ranma had caught and all he could do was laugh.

"Damn it, Ranma, only you. Only the Wild Horse. Damn it, duct tape. Oh, shit." Steven leaned against a stack of boxes and laughed until tears ran down his cheeks. "We're going to have a hell of a time getting that off it. Veggie oil or not. Boy, you are priceless."

Ranma and Sunny had started laughing too, Steven's hilarity was contagious. The wyvern let it be known that it didn't think it was funny in the least. It squawked and grumbled, squirming and struggling against its improvised bonds.

Akane watched the three friends and grumbled too. She felt left out and ignored and that set her teeth on edge, so she took it out on the most likely target, even thought she knew better. She let her temper get the best of her.

"Well, and who are you? I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Tendo Akane. Ranma's ex-fiancé."

Sunny bristled at the tone of Akane's voice. It was cool and slightly sarcastic, but she smiled at Akane in what she hoped was a friendly fashion. Unfortunately the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm Yao Sun. Ranma's healer. Should I be pleased to meet you?"

Ranma started to get in between the two girls but Steven grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled hard enough that, if he didn't yield, his shirt would tear. Getting Ranma in a head lock, he held on, as Ranma struggled half-heartedly.

"No, boy. Stay out of it. I'd rather fight a dozen wyverns than get in between two girls in a cat fight."

"Cat fight? Akane don't know the Neko-ken, when did Sunny learn it?"

"Shut up, stay out of it, and watch."

So Ranma watched as the two girls figuratively circled each other like two cats, waiting for an opening.

"Maybe, maybe not. Depends on what you want with that jerk Ranma. I don't think much of the way you've influenced him either. Swears like a dock hand, still talks like a rice farmer too."

Sunny sneered at Akane, "Poor Ranma. Last time he saw you, I had to heal him. Took a lot to do it too. Violent tomboy isn't what I'd call you. Ranma talks quite well when he isn't upset. I wonder who upset him?"

Akane bristled at Sunny, and reached up to get her mallet

"Oh dear! Did I touch a raw spot? You shouldn't lose your temper like that, it's not lady like."

Sunny made a small gesture with one hand. Akane yelped and stuck her tingling fingers in her mouth.

"Oh my, I knew you were immature, but really. Thumb sucking. Tsk, tsk" Sunny made a ticking sound with her tongue and then cocked her head as Akane glared at her.

"At least I don't go around stealing other people's boyfriends."

"Stealing! You didn't want him. In fact you nearly ruined him."

"Ruined him! All I did was try to keep him from being a total hentai."

Sunny peered at the air beside Akane.

"You nearly ruined him. It took me forever to get him to quit flinching every time I got near him. You're a true fool and very ignorant."

Akane growled at Sunny who smiled, a chilly expression that scared Ranma. He tried to get away from Steven again but he wouldn't let go.

"I'm ignorant. You're deluded. If you think he's going to do more than . . ."

"He'll only do what I let him. That's your problem, you don't have any self-control, so you blame him for your insecurities. You need a shrink in the worst way."

The argument was rapidly degenerating into name calling, so Sunny showed her maturity by apologizing.

"Damn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get into this with you. You don't want him and I do, so let's just quit. Before we go somewhere we don't want to."

Akane sighed. "I have a shrink, and I thought I was doing better, but every time I see Ranma I just seem to fall back into old, bad patterns. I'm sorry too. Forget I said anything. And sorry about the mallet."

"Show me how you do that?"

"Ok you just . . . and then you . . . See. It's not hard."

Sunny watched as Akane showed her how to make a tesseract and smiled. "Well. That was easy." Sunny gestured like Akane had and made her own anomaly. "Thank you. It'll be very useful."

Akane eyed Ranma and Steven, then stood side by side with Sunny, who glared at the two men along with her.

"What, you two? What did you think I was going to do, attack her? Not likely, only men indulge in that sort of foolishness."

Sunny added her two cents worth by just folding her arms and nodding. Akane left saying she was going home and Ranma should bring Sunny to the Dojo to meet the rest of the Tendo family.

Ranma elbowed Steven in the ribs and changed the subject, realizing that he was never going to figure it out.

"I'm going to finish searching the warehouse, where there's one, there might be more. I don't feel any...whatever it is. Warnin' but no sense in taking chances. Sunny stay with Steven please. But kiss first."

Sunny gave Ranma a special kiss. He'd been insulted by Akane and she felt sorry that she'd made such a scene in front of him. His reaction to the kiss was everything she hoped it would be. Ranma groaned into her mouth and reluctantly pulled away.

"Damn it, Sunny. I've got to search this warehouse and . . . well, never mind."

He started his search and spent sometime looking, while he listened with half an ear to the sound of Steven and several other men loading the wyvern chick onto the truck. He didn't know exactly what they would do with it, but he remembered hearing someone on the radio wanting to research other dimensional creatures.

"Steven? You better see this."

Steven came up beside Ranma and looked where he was pointing. On the floor were six broken egg shells. A little farther along they could see the remains of several wyvern chicks. Ranma peered at them and tried to count, but they were so entangled he couldn't.

Steven left and came back with gloves for both of them, after a little pulling and fiddling they saw that there were five bodies. The soft parts had been eaten and parts of the large muscle masses as well.

"Ok, that answers my question. There are six eggs and five corpses. One live one--we got them all-- one way or another."

Steven sighed, he was glad they didn't have another mess on their hands. He didn't feel like trying to kill another wyvern or other inter-dimensional pain in the ass.

"Ranma you did real good catching that wyvern chick. But as to Akane being involved in it--" A shout from the truck driver distracted him. "I'll talk to you when you get home, ok?"

Steven headed to the truck; the wyvern chick was beginning to get combative again, so he just waved to Ranma over his shoulder and took off, leaving Ranma and Sunny to their own devices. He wasn't abandoning them, he knew they were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.

"Ranma, do you think Akane really meant it when she invited us to see her family?"

Sunny knew that Ranma thought a lot of some of the family. And she hoped he would visit them and get back on good footing with the people he had feelings for. "No, she didn't, but I'm going to visit anyway. Do you mind?"

Ranma waited for Sunny to call the shot. He'd like to visit now but if Sunny was uncomfortable he'd put it off 'til later.

"No, let's go. I'd like to meet Nabiki."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Ranma rang the bell at the gate and waited for someone to come and invite him in.

"Ranma, my boy. Come in. You just missed. . . ."

Soun didn't get to finish his sentence as Kasumi showed up behind him and immediately began to fuss over Ranma and Sunny. Inviting them in and seating them in the Engawa with tea and cake.

"Now Ranma, tell me everything. I want to know all about what you've been doing."

Ranma grinned at Kasumi and Soun. He didn't believe for a minute that Nabiki didn't know exactly what he'd been up to and said so.

"Oh, she tells us stories, but I think she's just trying to shock us. Ranma you tell me something and I'll believe it."

So Ranma started to tell them what he'd been doing. Only to be stopped by Nabiki walking in and seating herself at the table. Kasumi had to make a fuss over her, so it took a while and Ranma had time to think.

"Where's Akane? Didn't she hear testimony at the trial?"

Soun shook his head, "The lawyers didn't let her stay in the court room. They didn't want her testimony to be tainted. Your Mother wasn't allowed either."

"Is she in the house? If she is, Kasumi I'd like you to get her. Please."

Sunny just wrapped her arms around Ranma and hugged him. She knew Nabiki had told everyone as much as she knew, she didn't know exactly what Ranma, or more likely Steven, had told her. She hated to see Ranma have to go through all this again and again.

Akane followed Kasumi onto the Engawa and sat down, looking sullen.

"I don't know what you want with me. I'm sorry we don't get along, but we don't, and I don't see any reason to subject myself to another messy scene. Just let it slide, will you?"

Ranma eyed Nabiki for a moment before asking, "What have you told everyone?"

Nabiki gave Ranma a quick run down of what she knew, a very bare outline. It included everything that had happened to him and he was amazed again at the extent of Nabiki's information network.

Akane burst out in a fury, "I don't believe half of it. I missed all the testimony about everything. Nabiki has been telling us stuff but her information is _wrong_."

"Akane, I know you don't want to believe anything. I really don't care anymore. I always tried not to upset you but take a gander at this."

Ranma pulled his shirt off and stood up. The results were everything Ranma had always feared. Akane turned so white she was practically transparent. Nabiki left the room quickly. Soun started to cry. But Kasumi surprised him, she stood up and clenched her fists saying, "Oh my. I'm so angry. You just wait until I get my hands on Genma. Would you like a slice of cake?"

"Huh? Cake? Not now, I think. Thanks anyway."

Sunny just snickered softly, she knew girls like Kasumi. She had a very odd world view, extremely narrow in that she was the perfect house keeper but she was also protective. Once the blinders came off, she was going to be something to reckon with. If the blinders ever came off.

"Ranma, that wasn't nice. You've shocked everyone with that little display."

"Yeah, Sunny. I know. But I'm tired of dodging around trying to hide stuff from people, I lose track of who knows what. I'm not doing that anymore, Ryouga says it's compensatory . . . something. I'm trying to make it 'not so' but, ya know, how would you feel if your father sold you? . . forget it. I'm just coming down and feeling a little sorry for myself. Let's go home 'kay?"

Ranma stood up and offered Sunny his hand, when she took it, he pulled her into a quick hug and, smiling sweetly at Kasumi, refused tea, cake or anything else. Telling her he'd come back later for a real visit, he started to leave, with Sunny trying to run interference for him.

Nabiki stopped him and showed him some papers. "Ranma, I need a few minutes of your time, right now. Please. It's really important."

Sunny poked Ranma and said she'd try to settle Soun down a little. She didn't hold out much hope of that but she liked Nabiki from the little contact she'd had with her via E-mail so she wanted to let Ranma have some private time with her if they both wanted it.

Ranma sat down at the common room table with Nabiki and tried to get his head into listening to what she had to say. It was hard as he was beginning to come down from the double adrenaline high and knew he only had so much time to get this done and get home before he crashed completely. There were some techniques he could use to stay awake but he'd pay for it later and didn't want to use them unless it was life or death. And this didn't seem like either.

"What ya got? Nabiki, I don't want to be rude, but let's get to it. I'm startin' to come down and I'm gonna crash soon."

Nabiki hadn't been around martial arts all her life and Ranma for nearly two years without learning something. So she knew exactly what Ranma was talking about.

"I'm sorry Ranma, I won't take much time. I'll just go over everything; then, you have your lawyers look these papers over. I'll answer any questions they have. But it's pretty straightforward."

Kasumi put a tea pot and two cups on the table and left again but not before she bowed to Ranma with a murmured 'Thank you, Ranma-sama', Ranma bowed back with a puzzled look on his face. (What now?)

"I took the money from your sale . . . oh, this is harder than I thought it would be . . . I invested it and I've been using the interest to get the Dojo out of the red, along with Akane's classes, the family is finally out of financial trouble. These papers put you in receipt of the principle and make arrangements for us to pay off the interest that I used at a reasonable rate of interest."

Ranma blinked at Nabiki for a moment. "Um . . . Nabiki, how can you have interest on interest? I don't understand. That money was a gift from me to you. I just kinda let ya keep it. So as not to make ya self-conscious or nothin'. It's yours. I don't want it."

"Ranma! You are not giving us that much money. Especially American cash, it's not in anyone's best interests. The taxes we'd have to pay on a gift would eat up most of it. The interest I used is now the principle of a loan from you, and the payments are not only reasonable, but can be skipped as needed. Don't worry, I covered all the bases. This way we're all protected. We got use of the money when we needed it most. The interest won't hurt us and that interest gives you a nice little income. Appropriate to your age. Just take it and be happy. For all of us." Nabiki gave a watery little sniff. "Shit. Now see what you've done."

Ranma reached out and hugged Nabiki, whispering, "Nabiki, please don't cry. I gave ya the money because I knew you needed it. I love all of ya. You're the family I never had. I'm glad to help. Stop snifflin' and give me some tea."

Nabiki wiped her eyes, bopped Ranma, and poured him some tea, calling Sunny to come have some too.

After the obligatory tea and cake, Ranma and Sunny said good-by to the Tendo family. Akane barely said anything, only wishing Ranma and Sunny a good trip. Soun blubbered all over both teens, while Kasumi looked on with a soft smile. Nabiki reminded Ranma to give the papers to his lawyers and told Sunny to take her some good pictures.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I need to thank all my reviewers. Wow there's a lot of you.

Myth barhart (thanks for the one shot beta), Gopu, dogbertcarroll (special thanks for all the help), Valakun, Jerry Unipeg (special thanks for reviewing every chapter), Night-Owl123, Taiki, dragon-game, jemnos, mysticalflame(), Tacobowl, Alex Ultra (Yes, it means something), Wonderbee31, Gob stopper, helen27, Armisael, badgerwolf(), rajin.

And special thanks go to my wonderful, patient, good natured beta, Niana Kuonji. You're the best, special huggles and cookies.

October 18, 2004


	36. Chapter 37

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.

When I thanked my reviewers I missed powellt, sorry! Apologies to anyone else I may have missed. Please forgive me.

Also sorry this chapter took so long to post. I got writer's block and had to write my way through it.

Chapter 37

Ranma was shoveling down breakfast to the amazement of some new recruits who had gathered just around the corner to watch him, when a Sergeant walked up and saluted.

"Don't salute me. I'm not enlisted. What do you want?"

The Sergeant dropped his salute saying, "When I went through orientation they said, 'Salute all the Georges.' So I'm saluting you. You gonna bust my chops or take the message?"

"Sorry. What's the message?"

Ranma sighed, he knew what it was going to be; a summons to Steven's office for an obligatory ass chewing.

"Steven says, when you're done with breakfast he wants you in his office. I think he's kind of pissed. What'd you do now?"

"Do I know you? Or is my business all over the . . . never mind; my business is always all over the Compound. The latrine-o-gram works way too good around here. I'm leaving. Will you take care of my tray for me? I'd appreciate it."

Ranma waited for the Sergeant to nod, then he left for Steven's office, knowing he was in for a lecture and probably more.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Steven eyed the memo from his commander, they were _all_ under a microscope right now and couldn't afford a slip. But he could interpret his orders in a lot of ways and they wouldn't question him. He just hoped the publicity died down soon.

Ranma walked into the office and sat down in the chair in front of Steven's desk. He waited as Steven fished the memo out of the folder and took it without a word. After reading it he thought for a moment.

"What do you consider an appropriate punishment? You know that getting Akane to do or not do anything is almost impossible. Really impossible if you're me . . . Steven, I won't hold anything against you, no matter how hard you beat me. You know that. So let's get it over with. Do we need a witness?"

"Yeah, after breaking the story of all the incursions, and some of the other stuff reporters got their hands on. We're treading on really thin ice. The public doesn't know exactly what to think of us and if they decide to be scared of us, we're in trouble. But if we can carry off the next few weeks without scaring them half to death we're probably home free. So appropriate punishment and a witness . . . Doris, will you come in here, please."

Dorie walked in and gave Steven a look. One of her 'will you quite messing around' looks.

"I'm here. What do you want now? I've got a lot to do, what with the reporters calling every three seconds and all the written questions we have to answer. I have Ranma to thank for that and it was a good idea too. We have time to compose a good answer without trying to dodge half a dozen other questions at the same time. Good on you, Ranma. Smart thinking."

"Well, Sugar, you read the memo. I know you read all of them, so don't say you didn't. And I need a witness to the punishment. You'll do."

"Steven, if you're gonna stand there and tell me you're actually going to punish Ranma for not trying to get that girl to do . . . well, not do. Damnit, I'm getting involved. You know what I mean and I'm not standing here and letting you. Or . . . Steven Campbell do _not _stand and smirk at me like that. What are you up to?"

Ranma, who by now was thoroughly confused, decided to get things back on track.

"Look you two, argue later. I'd like to get this over with. I've got a dance class to go to. I kinda lied to Akane. I told her I already had a diploma, so I'd like to get these last classes over with as soon as possible."

Doris frowned at Steven; Steven just looked at the memo.

"It says here that I'm to decide upon and administer an appropriate punishment. They left it all in my hands . . . ok . . . here goes. Ranma, you should have found some way to keep Akane out of the combat zone. She's a civilian even if she is a class six martial artist. Shame on you . . . Put out your left hand."

Ranma blinked, this was it? He put out his hand and waited.

"Palm up, please."

Ranma turned his hand over palm up. Steven smacked him with a ruler across his upturned palm.

"Huh? . . . What the hell was that?. . . that's it?"

"Yeah, that's an appropriate punishment for not trying to get a mule-headed class six martial artist to stay out of the line of fire. If she'd gotten hurt, it might have been different, but I doubt it. I've had the pleasure of meeting the young lady and, in my opinion, she needs a good spanking. She's too stubborn for her own good, but I hear she's in therapy, so maybe she'll learn. I hope so. She's not high enough level to work for us but she could help out in other ways if she could take orders from you."

Ranma, who was absently rubbing his palm, snorted.

"Akane take orders from me? Yeah, right. Hell freezing over comes to mind. Look, if you're done I got to get to that class, before Sunny has my hide on a stretcher. Bye . . . Steven? Thanks for . . . well, you know."

"Yeah, I know. Get to class. I don't want to deal with Sunny in 'I'm disappointed' mode any more than you do."

Ranma snickered all the way to the school building. He still thought it was a waste to have two people using a whole building for High School classes.

When he got to the building, he found out that Steven had already started using it for other classes. He walked in the door and ran into a crowd of men, all milling around in the entry way, with papers in hand. He tried to duck up the main stair case and was stopped by a Master Sergeant who wanted to see his class schedule.

"I don't have one. All I've got is one class today and two tomorrow. Look, I'm late already, just let me by." The Sergeant put his hand on Ranma's chest and pushed.

"Hey watch it. Don't be gettin' pushy with me. I don't like it."

Ranma grabbed his patience with both hands and held on. He was going to have trouble today, with all the new men in the building and everyone running around trying to get into some kind of routine no one was going to know who he was or whether he was supposed to be here or not.

"RANMA!! You're late! Come on, get up here and let's get to class. If I have to do a detention because we're late I'm gonna take it out of your hide. Move it, mister!"

Ranma rolled his eyes at the Sergeant and muttered, "Let me by before she has a shit fit. If I have to listen to another lecture today, I'm gonna go over the edge."

The Sergeant dithered for a second and Ranma got impatient so he just jumped over the man. He hadn't meant to do something like this, it caused too much trouble and he probably was going to have to pay another visit to Steven's office because of this but he was getting crowded and he didn't like that.

The reactions to his jump weren't what he'd expected. The Sergeant just muttered "Shit, that's Saotome" and everyone else who'd seen the jump gasped in amazement or cheered. He landed beside Sunny with a soft 'tup'--an amazing thing in itself since he was wearing combat boots.

"Ranma. Didn't I tell you to wear your slippers? I don't want you walking all over my feet in those boots. And since we're taking dancing lessons again . . . "Ranma shut Sunny up by kissing her, to the loud cheering of everyone in the vestibule and adjacent hall ways.

"Shut it, you perverts . . . Sunny, since when do you think I'm clumsy enough to step on your feet?"

"I don't, just better safe than sorry. You know I trust you don't you?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Look, all I know is I pushed Saotome and I'm still alive to tell about it. I don't believe half of what people say about him. He's just a kid. He's gotten a bad rep somehow. He's not violent, he just doesn't like being crowded."

"Well, all you were trying to do was your job."

"Doesn't make any difference to some people. Did to him."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The minute Ranma got through the door of the class room Sunny grabbed Ranma's ass with both hands.

"Hey! Watch it! What's that all about?" Ranma jumped three feet up and four feet forward, turning in mid air to stare at Sunny in surprise.

"I just want to heal you. I heard about you being called to Steven's office."

"Yeah." Ranma grinned at Sunny. "He really gave it to me good. Here . . . I'm so hurt."

Ranma held out his hand for Sunny to see. She took his hand in hers and felt it. "What? There's nothing wrong . . . he didn't punish you."

"Yeah he did. Smacked my hand with a ruler. Didn't give me any lecture . . . just said 'shame on you' like I was a naughty little kid or something. He's really getting the idea that he's in charge here. He's a good administrator and he'd be better if he'd get over the idea he's nothing but an ignorant gladiator. He knuckles under to the Board too easily, or he used to. I think we're going to have a lot less trouble from now on. Especially now that Downs is in the Gulag."

"The Russians really sent him to the Gulag Archipelago? That's harsh. I like it. . . ." Sunny looked around. "Don't see the teacher. He or she is late. That's not good. If this crowd made Teacher late whoever it is, is going to be in a real bad mood. . . . Damnit!"

Sunny's curse wasn't caused by the lateness of the teacher but by her elastic breaking and her hair falling down in a cascade across her back. She groped for it and managed to get half of it contained but it was still everywhere.

Ranma fished a brush from her back pack and sat on the window sill. He motioned for Sunny to sit on the floor in front of him and began to brush her hair.

"I really like it that you're not dying your hair every color of the rainbow anymore. I like the real color much better. Especially now that it's grown out and long enough to do something with. . . . here, give me the elastic."

Ranma efficiently wrapped the elastic around the end of the twisted braid he'd made and flipped it over her shoulder for her approval. She nodded and patted him on the thigh, then leaned back against him to wait for the teacher.

"Sunny? Do you know why we're meeting in the little Dojo? It seems kinda odd to me."

"Well, I think it's because we're going to be studying Ball room dancing and need the room. Also, I bet they just dumped us here for all our classes so they could have the rest of the classrooms for the college classes . . . we get the short piece of the candy bar again. Oh, well."

Ranma thought about what Sunny had said and decided that they weren't really being shorted. The room was nice; large and well lit by the wide expanse of windows along the far wall. The floor was hard wood, excellent for dancing--or martial arts. If they were going to do more dancing than anything else it was a good choice.

"What else are we taking besides dancing? I didn't get a class schedule. I was a little busy recovering from the fight with that wyvern; I think I slept through the orientation and all the rest of it." Ranma leaned over Sunny, resting his chin on the top of her head and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "I think I heard something about Kuno and Ryouga but I was out of it enough that I don't remember. Do you know what is goin' on with Kodachi?"

Sunny sighed, she'd known that Ranma wasn't listening so she gave him a quick rundown.

"Kuno is going to have to stay in Switzerland for a while. Kodachi is really screwed up, none o f the meds work for her and without meds therapy is a waste of time. Ryouga is coming back in three days, Leela has been assigned as his--" Sunny snickered wickedly "--keeper--permanently. I think they'll be married in two or three years. They really make a cute couple; Ryouga is devoted to her and she just plain looks silly every time she looks at him. Danny is in OCS and has said he won't be back for at least a year because there's a lot they can teach him. I think he's going into administration. Shuba won't be taking any of these classes, he's just refused--dug in his heels and said he'll take administrative failure. Stubborn ass."

"What's administrative failure?"

"That's where you just skip classes and fail because you're not there. We could do that but you want to get an A average; if we take a fail on the three classes we're short we'll get a C at best."

"I want to graduate with the best average I can get, and even if it's only one semester it might make a difference. I might want to go on to college some day soon and I don't want to have trouble getting into a good one."

Sunny sighed, she hoped Ranma could get into college courses here in the Compound. Steven had arranged with one of the best universities in Japan to have extension classes here but the requirements hadn't been waived. If you didn't measure up you couldn't get in.

"Ok, so we take classes that I'm going to hate, so you can get into a good university. That's doable, but you are so gonna owe me, mister. And I'm taking it out of your hide." Sunny reached over her head and tickled Ranma, who squirmed and squeaked.

"Excuse me, young man. Are you Saotome Ranma and Yao Sun?"

Ranma and Sunny jumped apart looking at the woman who had startled them. She was tall and elegant with a regal look that said class.

Ranma clutched the end of his pigtail and eyed the woman hesitantly, people like her usually took one look at him and turned up their noses.

"Yuh, I'm Saotome, that's Sunny. Hep ya? Wha'ch need?"

Sunny sighed and let her shoulders slump. The lady gave Ranma an odd look and sighed also. Her next words stunned both teens, Ranma especially.

"Oh dear. I had hoped that it wasn't as bad as Kuno-sama said it was. However, he has said that you are both very smart and that I should let you test out of as much as possible because you're so busy with some supernatural business. He explained it, but I didn't understand much.

"So the first thing we do is see what you know. Kuno-sama got me out of retirement and asked that I teach you social graces."

Ranma looked at the Lady closely. "Hey, I recognize you. I saw you dance when I was little. You're Svetlana Dubrovskia. I sneaked into the opera house to watch you dance. I really remember because Pop had a fit."

"I'm pleased that you remember me. You must have been very young. I've been retired for almost six years. It's too bad you got into trouble."

"I was eleven. Pop wasn't best pleased with me but he only gave me a taste of the strap and tied me up and left me in a ditch overnight. Wasn't nothin'."

Ranma blinked at the look of fury on the woman's face.

"I had hoped that what Kuno-sama told me was an exaggeration but I think he toned it down quite a bit. Well, I don't believe in punishments. If you want to learn, I'll teach; if you don't, I go away. My time is too precious to waste it on people who don't want what I have to offer. However, I don't think I'll have trouble like that with you two. Will I?"

"No ma'am." Sunny blessed Madam Dubrovskia with one of her best smiles. "We've been swing dancing for a while. We had a club but it broke up because everyone couldn't get together at the same time. I like dancing and Ranma is good at anything physical."

"Excellent, I want to see what you know. Dance for me!"

Ranma suddenly exploded into motion. Madam had started across the floor and slipped, her high heels skidding on the slick wooden floor. He scooped her up and held her until she got her feet under her again.

"Easy there, that floor is slick as a greased eel. You better take those heels off before you bust somethin' you don't want to. Here," Ranma handed her a pair of Dojo slippers, "put these on. They got rubber soles."

"Thank you. Now I have to correct you. It is properly 'something' with a g and also 'they have'. Your English is good. I haven't heard you speak Japanese yet but Kuno-sama says that it is problematical at best."

"Naw. I'm not sure what problematical means but if it means it's bad, you're wrong." Ranma switched to Japanese. "I talk like a rice farmer. Don't got nothin' but bad and worse. Pop jappered me up gooder n' shit. I get by if I think 'bout every word out . . . hey! What'd ya do that for?"

Sunny had pinched Ranma and was glaring at him like she wanted to really smack him.

"Ranma you speak a lot better than that. Why are you talking like a hick?"

"Because if I don't watch every word out of my mouth, that's what I'll talk like. I do good until I get upset, then everythin' I learned goes out of my head. It's why I speak English as much as I do. I actually speak better English than I do Japanese."

"Oh! Ranma, I never thought about that. I wondered why you did that, but I thought it was because you needed the practice in English."

Madam smiled. "Your English is very good but I see that you really do speak like, as you put it, a rice farmer. However, I think that you will do quite well, all you need to do is think about what you want to say and then say it. Take your time. If you've got anything important to say people will listen. And after a while you'll get better. My Russian was horrible when I first went to Moskva but I learned to speak with elegance and you can, too."

"You learned . . . I thought..." Ranma looked at Madam with interest.

"Yes, I grew up on a cooperative in Siberia. I went to Moskva at the age of seventeen and entered the Russian State Ballet School. I was taught. If I can learn, so can you. Just don't get discouraged."

Sunny was nodding, glad that someone else was telling Ranma the same things she'd been telling him forever.

"So . . . I went from a beet farmer to a lady. You can go from a rice farmer to a gentleman. All it takes is a little hard work, some application and a desire to better yourself. Do you understand me?"

Ranma nodded. Madam was making a lot of sense. "Yeah, unless I'm upset I do pretty good. I'll never speak as nice as Kuno but I don't sound like a real hick most of the time. I guess I just keep at it 'til I get it right. Huh?"

Madam smiled at Ranma. He was so intense, she enjoyed working with people like Ranma, people who would give it everything they had and keep at it until it was right. This might even be fun.

Fifteen minutes later Madam was sighing in ecstatic contemplation of the gently swaying duo as Ranma and Sunny demonstrated their waltzing skills. After the waltz they went through schottische, polka, tango, Maringa, samba, two-step, and foxtrot.

"Stop . . . stop . . . stop. It is quite painful. It make me vant do cry. It is . . ."

Sunny interrupted. "I didn't think we were that bad. I mean we've just learned from watching the Ballroom dancing contest on tv, but Ranma's real good at figuring out moves of any kind and dancing is just kata of a sort to music."

Madam got her emotions and English under control. Patting Ranma on a slumped shoulder, she sighed,

"Nyet, nyet. It is painful to me because I know that you will never compete in those same contests you learned from. You are so good that it is a shame before God that you will never show the world your skills.

"Now all we have to do is have you two demonstrate some sort of extreme social skill you'll never need to attend a banquette or cocktail party, so I'm not sure what to do."

Ranma brightened. "Tea Ceremony! I can do that easy."

"Ranma you never said you knew tea ceremony. When did you learn that?"

Ranma filled them in on how he'd come to learn the Tea Ceremony. Finishing up with, "I'll have one for you on . . . " Ranma cocked his head thinking. "Can you be here Tuesday night at seven? There's a full moon and we can view it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"I don't believe it. That kid is actually grooming the path on his hands and knees."

"Yeah, but he's having a Tea Ceremony, it's really important that everything is just so. I bet he cleans the house from top to bottom himself too."

"That's just stupid. What difference does it make if the rafters are clean. Who'll notice?"

"He will. I don't understand it myself. But I heard that he learned from a Master that tied his legs so he'd learn to move in just the right way. Really strict."

"Still think it's nuts but I know he'll do well."

"I hope so. Go through all that work and not get a good grade. That'd be a real shame."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tuesday night came and Ranma held the Ceremony with all the formal touches that could be expected from a Master First Class. The moon viewing was phenomenal as there was an eclipse that night.

"Well, that went well. I thought the view of the moon from the engawa was especially beautiful on the pond water."

Ranma yawned and led Sunny toward the dorm. Sunny leaned into him and allowed him to cuddle close-- it was getting chilly this late in the year.

"I think it will be beautiful when the snow is on, too. I'd like to have a ceremony for Steven on the first snow fall."

"Suits me. Kuno would like that too. You know I really miss the nut. And I really need to talk to Ryu about a few things. I'll be glad when he gets back."

"He should be back tomorrow. Good night."

Sunny went into her room and Ranma stood in the hall for a moment, thanking his lucky stars for his friends and for Sunny.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma woke the next morning and headed out to train. He got in his run and spent extra time on kata since he'd slacked off some and felt guilty about it. When he got back from the mess hall, the dorm was in chaos. There were men everywhere, wandering in and out the door, and the halls were crowded with commissioned officers obviously moving in.

"Excuse me, what's going on?"

"Watch it, kid. Steven finally cleared this building for occupation. The hot shots living here are going to have to get used to living like the rest of the hoi-ploi, it's about time too. I can't believe that anyone could think that they are going to keep this whole building for themselves."

Ranma called Steven and asked him what was going on. Steven explained that Kuno wasn't going to come back for at least six more months, so they couldn't hold his room; Ryouga had asked that he have a house available ASAP as he and Leela were engaged and he wanted to have a home ready for her when they got married. So that left only Sunny and Ranma in the whole building and they couldn't afford to let a hundred eighteen units go empty anymore. Housing was too short.

Ranma snapped his phone shut and headed for his room. He arrived just in time to see a Staff Sergeant getting ready to use a master key to open the door.

"Hey! That's my room. You got no business in there."

"You Saotome Ranma?"

Ranma eyed the Sergeant with some disfavor. "Yeah, what's it to ya?"

"This is your room mate Lieutenant Franz."

"No way! I ain't havin' no room mate. It's too dangerous."

Ranma knew he was fighting a losing battle but he wasn't having a room mate without giving notice that he wasn't happy about it.

Franz took this opportunity to butt in. "If he doesn't want a room mate maybe you should just let it slide. I'll go back to the barracks until there's a room available."

The Sergeant just shook his head, he had everything settled in his head and he wasn't changing his mind: this kid could just get over it.

Ranma exhaled through his nose so as not to piss off anyone. He didn't want trouble, he had enough without having a pissed-off roomie. He took out his key and opened the door revealing a room that pointed up the fact that Ranma wasn't an ordinary teenager, it was neat and clean. Everything had a place and everything was in its place.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Steven, Ranma has passed every class--aced them. Madam says that she never saw a nicer Tea Ceremony."

"That's good, but we're going to have trouble with him living in the dorm now. He's not going to like all the commotion that comes with living with three hundred plus people in one building."

"Well, I'm just glad that he won't have a roomie."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Look kid, I gotta get some sleep. I'm on duty in six hours. I hate second shift, but I'm stuck with it until a new group comes in."

Ranma rolled his eyes. This wasn't working out at all. It had been a week and all they did was argue. Franz didn't like Sunny in the room, he didn't like Ranma's music, he didn't want him on the computer. He seemed to think that Ranma should knuckle under since he was the younger of the two.

"Yeah, well, ya shoulda thought of that before ya stayed up half the night drinkin' with that mob of jerks ya hang around with."

"Damnit! What the hell did you just say? I can't understand you. Why don't you learn to speak English?"

"Aa, shimatta, Kisama! This is Japan. Why'nt ya learn to speak Japanese. Omae aho ya de. Nan dai yo! Egg in your beer. Baka yamero yo! Nani! Yaru ka? Kuso! I'm leavin'!"

The Lieutenant stared after Ranma shaking his head. He had no idea what Ranma had said or why he was so mad, after all he was a lieutenant and Ranma wasn't, and he was older.

Ranma knocked on Sunny's door and--completely forgetting that she had a room mate--walked in.

"Fuck! Sumimasen. Damnit! I'm sorry. Tell Sunny I need her. I'll be in Steven's office."

The lady that Sunny was rooming with was luckily good natured and hadn't been upset with Ranma barging in on her.

Ranma headed for Steven's office at a hard trot. He wasn't putting up with this, he didn't have to. Steven had said he could have anything he wanted and he wanted a private room.

"Steven. Ranma's here and he's in a state. You better see him now. Be sure to tell him that he needs to catch up with all those reports in his office. I don't think he's read a single one."

At Steven's arrested look, Dorie slapped a pile of folders down on Steven's desk and glowered at him, hands on her hips

"Steven Campbell, you _did_ tell him he had an office and needed to read those reports? . . . No . . . you forgot, didn't you?"

Steven admitted that he had and Doris snarled at him, "Steven, I swear, I don't know where your head is sometimes. Now that poor kid has weeks of reports to catch up on. Well, I'll show him in and you can explain to him how this happened."

Ranma stomped into the office and leaned on Steven's desk with both hands.

"I don't ask for much. You know I don't. I can't stand that room mate of mine. I'd like a private room. I can't sleep, I can't work out, all he does is complain about everything and anything and had the nerve to tell me I needed to learn to speak better English. Well, my English is better than his Japanese. Steven, do something."

Steven shook his head. Ranma wasn't supposed to have a room mate. That was one of the things he'd insisted on. He'd even had a special meeting with the housing officer and explained to him about Ryouga, Kuno, and especially Ranma.

"I don't think I can; I had a meeting with the Housing Officer and he told me he'd make sure that you didn't have a room mate nor would Ryouga or Kuno. Sunny said she'd like a room mate, so I didn't worry about her. I'll look into it, but with housing the way it is, there may not be much I can do."

"Well, his blood is on your hands. You know if he wakes me up suddenly he's a dead man." At the look on Steven's face Ranma waited for the rest of the bad news. He was getting real tired of surprises.

"Un . . . and while you're here . . . I messed up. I was supposed to tell you about your office and remind you to come in every few days to read the reports. And I haven't been reading them because I thought you were. So I need for you to go to your office and start on them now. I'll get back to you on the room mate situation. Ranma, I'm sorry about this."

"Well . . . I know you are, but I just can't have a roomie. At least not this guy. All he wants to do is argue and boss me around and I'm not taking it much longer. If nothing else is available, I'll move up to that little cottage I stayed in when I first came. But if he messes with me too much more I'm not gonna be responsible for my actions. He touches me too much."

Ranma didn't even blink over the office; he'd suspected that he was supposed to be doing something else because life was way too easy just now and he was waiting for the whammy.

Doris led him to the office and opened the door. Ranma looked around and was pleasantly surprised; the office was large and airy with a nice view of the mountains, unfortunately his desk was large. Unfortunate because it was loaded with files that he had to read all at once. Shrugging he sat in the chair, got up, adjusted it and sat back down.

Taking the file Dorie handed him, he absently unlaced his boots and leaned back in the chair. Kicking off his boots, he opened the file; he started to read, and read, and read. He managed to get through half the reports before his (damn) roommate showed up looking for him.

"There you are. What are you doing in this office? I'm sure the real occupant won't appreciate you dirtying it up. Come on, I want you to iron my shirt for me. I've got a hot date. And I need my shoes polished."

Ranma couldn't believe it. This idiot wanted him to serve him. He'd been avoiding a real confrontation with him. Typically, Ranma just wanted to skirt around the whole thing, waiting for it to go away. But it didn't seem that he was going to get away with ignoring the situation. They were already arguing on a daily basis and this was the outside of enough.

"If you think I'm gonna slave for you, you're nuts. I didn't escape from one slave farm to let some freak like you walk all over me. Iron your own shirt! And while you're at it, clean up your mess. If I come home and find another mess, I'll bitch slap you into next week. You're a bigger pig than Ryouga."

Ranma slapped the report he'd been reading down on the desk and grabbed the Lieutenant by the arm to drag him to the door and put him out. Ranma felt like his life had finally spun completely out of his control.

"Look, I got three months of reports to catch up on. I don't have time to mess with you. I'm not foolin' around. "

"Jesus! Damnit! That hurts. Let me go." Franz tried to pull his arm out of Ranma's grip but it was too late. The sharp crack of a bone breaking filled the air.

"Damnit! Steven! Steven, come quick. I think I broke his arm."

Ranma banged on Steven's door and headed down the hall to Dorie's office to call the medics. Luckily Sunny was there, gossiping with Dorie about whatever it is that women find to talk about.

Sunny looked up at Ranma's entrance and went to hug him, but he just grabbed her hand and tugged her after him, filling her in on what had happened as they hurried down the hall.

"Ok. I can heal it. If you haven't crushed the bone too much. . . . Here let me see that."

Sunny reached for the man's arm, but he jerked away. "NO! I need a medic. And you can be sure that I'll have words with your commanding officer about this. I'm a lieutenant! Assaulting a superior officer . . . "

"I'm a _civilian_. I don't have a superior of any kind. Now hold still and let Sunny see to that arm. I'm sorry I broke it. I don't usually get that careless."

Ranma was now hotly embarrassed: he had been careless with a 'normal' and now they would both suffer for it. He knew Steven was going to have more that just something to say about this particular mess.

"Ranma, I want you to do it. You need to learn how to heal. You have the ability, I don't know why you were never taught. Look . . ."

"Sunny, I don't have any talent that way. At least, I don't think I do. How do you do that? It's . . . well . . . oh."

Sunny guided Ranma's hands and pushed a tiny bit of her power through them, which triggered him to reinforce the flow with his own ki. Franz sighed softly as the pain of his broken bone faded.

"I never . . . that felt really weird. Thanks for healing me, but I'm still talking to whoever is in charge of you. You need a keeper. You're entirely too young to be wandering around on a military base without supervision. My little brother is older than you and I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him."

Ranma got sullen and defensive, snarling, "Yeah? And I suppose your baby bro could kill assorted nasties, survive--not only being sent to the arena--but having a building fall on him? Don't think so. I don't ask for much but you _will _treat me with respect. I think I earned it. You'll be moving out or I will, you're too stupid for words."

Ranma turned to see Steven looking at him with fury written all over him; not only his face, but his stance. Ranma decided then and there that he had to get out for a while.

"Steven, when you're through beating me, I'd like to make arrangement to take a leave of absence. Not for very long, but the psychic says that there won't be any major incursions for at least a month. I'll keep my cell and you can always track me by my watch. I'd wait for Ryouga but I don't think talking to him is what I need. Everything just seems to keep falling apart on me and I can't keep adjusting. I need to be able to concentrate on my job, not on a bunch of peripheral stuff like living in a dorm that makes me jump forty times a minute. I can't sleep for all the banging doors and stuff. And he won't let me study--he's on second shift and stays up till all hours then he says my typing keeps him awake. I...shit, now I'm whining."

Steven just eyed Franz, then told him to go pack Ranma's stuff and bring it back to his office. Then he turned to Ranma and just jerked his head. Ranma went into his office and waited.

"Hey! You're not going to. . . . damnit, you can't."

Franz was finally beginning to realize that Ranma wasn't just some kid. All the men in the dorm turned barrack had tried to tell him that his room mate was different, but he'd not wanted to listen, he'd wanted him to be the little brother he missed, so he'd put them both in a mess.

"Ranma's a George. The punishment for hitting a 'normal' is severe; I could give him as many as thirty lashes with a cane on bare skin and no one would say anything. Think about that and get his stuff back here ASAP and don't miss so much as a sock. Understand me?"

Franz gulped, saluted and ran. Steven slammed his office door and confronted a pale and shaking Sunny and a sad and sullen Ranma. "Ok, I heard that. You need to go away for a while, don't you? Tell me about it."

"When you're through beatin' my butt we'll talk. I'd rather get it over with first."

"I said could, not will. So get your head out of your ass and talk to me."

Sunny tucked herself under Ranma arm; she already knew what was going to happen, and she'd been expecting it for a while. Too many things had happened to Ranma in too short a time, he was completely off balance and needed time to mentally center himself

"I gotta go away and 'find myself'. I know, that's as trite as it comes. I'm right here and I know where I am, but who am I? I'm not who I was even six months ago. I'm growing up. But what do I grow up into? I know what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life, but I need to figure out some other stuff. I need to get away from here and think things through. I'm gonna go 'walk about' and see if I can't get straight with myself. I don't like the way I handled the wyvern and I . . . I don't even know how to explain, I don't understand it myself, all I know is if I don't go I'm gonna bust."

Steven rubbed the back of his head. He'd seen this coming too and had hoped it wouldn't happen quite so soon but he knew if he tried to stop Ranma it would just come back to bite him later. Ranma was more mature than some people twice his age.

"Ok, Ranma. I'm not even going to try to argue with you. I don't have that right. Take a credit card with you and I'll see to it that you have your choice of vehicle. I'll tell your secondary team what's going on so you don't have to argue with them, too."

Ranma grinned at Steven. He hadn't dared hope that it would be this easy. But Steven had an uncanny ability to do the right thing, most of the time.

"Look. I'll turn my watch to active. I've got a credit card and I'll go by the Bursars office and get some more cash. I'll keep my cell on. I won't be out of touch. I just need to get away."

Ranma lead Sunny away to say his good-byes, he hated to leave like this, but if he didn't get his head sorted out, he wouldn't be any good to himself or anyone else. He just couldn't see any worth to himself outside of a weapon that everyone was afraid of. Or a kid that no one respected.

After taking Sunny back to her room, Ranma went to his room to find his ex-roomie trying to pack his things and not having much luck. Ranma didn't even flinch. He just emptied his dresser, desk and locker, piling it all on his bed.

He got his laptop and case, dumped his desk drawer and sorted through it, packing everything he'd need for his classes into it. Then he packed a duffel with an amazing amount of clothing, toiletries and other necessities.

"Take the rest of that shit to Steven. He'll keep it for me. Look . . . I'm sorry about the arm, but I hate being grabbed and touched. I'm a George. I thought everyone knew about us."

"I know all about the Georges, but no one told me you were one. How are we supposed to be careful of you if no one knows what you look like?"

"Well, I'd have thought you would treat a roommate with more respect, no matter what they look like. If someone is here, they're good at whatever they do. Better check yourself or you're gonna get in a fight with someone who's not as patient as me."

Ranma hefted his duffel and stuck his briefcase under his arm; he looked around the only real home he'd ever had, sighed and left without looking back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eek! Writer's block struck. This chapter is kind of scrambled but that's the way Ranma feels. He's suffering from a form of combat fatigue causing him to doubt himself and his worth. It's all part of coping with his life

For everyone who asked if it's over yet. Nope, not yet. I promised you a trip to China and a dragon you'll know it's over when you see 'epilogue' in the chapter listing.


	37. Chapter 38

Ranma 38

Disclaimer: Don't own Ranma. (In case you hadn't noticed--it's kinda hard to keep him chained up)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma grumbled. It was afternoon and he didn't have a place to stay the night. At least, he didn't think he did.

At the motor pool, he found that Steven had been better than his word. He'd gotten him a nice extended cab pickup with a bed cover. He liked the look of it and asked the Corporal he got the keys from if he knew how he could get some camping gear.

"Now what kind of inefficient morons do you think we are? The Captain went over to supply and got you everything you need. Nice two man tent, geodesic so you can set it up easy. Sleeping bag, camp stove; you name it, you got it. Bunch of MRE's too. But I'd advise eating out as much as possible."

"Nani? You think I can't _cook_. My heart's broken. Besides, I like MRE's. Yeah, yeah, I'm crazy. Tell me something I don't know."

Ranma smiled at the man to take the sting out of his words. He grinned back, being one of the sort who was happy just because. Ranma envied him.

"Here, while I'm giving bad advice. You shouldn't carry more than Five hundred dollars American, watch where you sleep and don't have sex with anyone you have to pay. If it's not classified, where are you going? I could find you some attractions to see."

Ranma chuckled in delight, this was more like it. The man might not know him from Adam but he was friendly and wanted to help.

"I haven't got the faintest idea, I'm going walk about. Too much has happened too fast and I need some private time to get my feet under me again. I can't get used to the idea that people are scared of me."

"Scared of you? You're not scary. What makes them. . . . naw . . . don't tell me. Just because you're Saotome? Chicken shit."

"Yeah, they are or else they just see a kid and disrespect me. I'm a civilian and I just . . . well, I'm not sure. I'm just tired."

"I can see why. You do just need walk about. When did you get to Australia?"

"Never been, just heard the phrase somewhere and it seemed to fit. Just go out and see what there is to see. I traveled all over with my pop. I never really had a stable home. Now I've been kicked out of my room by that ass they assigned me. So everything's spinning out of control and I just need to get away for a while."

"Well, after every thing I heard about; you're due a real vacation. By the way, I got in on your show. Very dramatic. Made a real impression on those that needed it. Myself I'm just glad you're good natured."

"You saw my demonstration and you're not scared of me?"

"Hell no, why should I be? I'm not starting anything and you ain't crazy. So . . . no worries, mate. Just go, travel around, have some fun. Come back a little happier. Ok?"

"Thanks. I got to see a man about a dog. I'll be back in a while. No . . . never mind. I'll call him when I feel better. I'm just gonna hit the road. See ya on the flip side."

Ranma stopped at the Bursars Office and got some more cash, checked on his account balance, and made sure his credit card was valid. It wouldn't do to find out that it wasn't by trying to pay and having it rejected.

After leaving the office Ranma counted his money. He had a little over 250,000 yen (current rates of exchange are 113.4 yen$1 American so he had a little more than 2204.58) that should hold him for at least a month if he was careful, then he realized he didn't have to be careful. He'd made arrangements for his card to be paid off out of his savings each month and he had a high balance in it because he hardly ever bought anything. The Compound had provided him with everything he'd needed for more than a year now as well as paying him a salary that still boggled his mind. He'd been saving that for an emergency and he didn't know what his need to get away was if not an emergency.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Housing office. How may I direct your call?"

"Head of Housing . . . .You want to tell me how Saotome wound up with a room mate?"

"I heard about that mess and already checked into it. The Sergeant in charge of assignments just decided in his own special space that it wasn't necessary to follow orders. I'm not sure what his problem was, hemorrhoids must have acted up or something. He's getting an official reprimand."

"Lot of good that does us now. Ranma wants a house. See he gets one."

"Where the hell am I supposed to get a house for a single male. I've got married couples now and not enough houses to go around for them."

"I don't care, get him a house if you have to build it . . . he said he would take that little cottage half way up the mountain. The one on that goat road."

"Ok, he can have that one but I'd like to know how he's going to get up and down from there."

"Run."

"Huh?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Day one:

Ranma drove down to Nerima and cruised around for a while trying to decide what to do. It was late and he didn't want to be trying to find a camping place.

"Hey! Doc Tofu. Hi ya."

"Ranma, how are you? You look well. I take it you don't need my professional services."

Ranma gave Doctor Tofu a small sheepish smile. He knew Doc Tofu would let him stay the night and even have some suggestions as to what he might do with himself for a while.

"No, I'm good that way but I need some advice and I trust you. Ryouga is a little too close to the problem maybe. Anyway, he's been trying to do something with Kodachi, so he's not here; should get back early tomorrow, was supposed to be here today but his flight was delayed. Uh . . . can I stay here tonight?"

"Certainly. I can tell you're upset. I don't believe you've used a complete sentence yet. Is that something you learned in the military? Come in and sit down. I was just getting ready to have dinner. I know it's a little early but I skipped lunch so I'm a bit hungry."

Ranma followed the doctor into the kitchen and sat down opposite him at the table. There was a bowl of rice and a smaller bowl of steamed mixed vegetables. Ranma took a plate and put a spoonful of rice and a few vegetables on it. He looked for some pickles or some other dish but there wasn't one.

"Well Doctor. One, I'm not in the military. I'm a 'civilian consultant' and get paid a hell of a salary. If I don't get dead, I'll be well off. But that's not the problem. I did something I'm not real proud of and I'm not handlin' it too well."

"You don't have to tell me about it in detail, I saw you on TV. It was sad to see what you did to the animal. But one question; how did it make you feel?"

"Frankly Doc, it made me sick to my stomach. I couldn't figure out anything else to do. I couldn't let it fly. If it got into Tokyo . . . well, I don't even want to guess at how many people would have died . . . Oh! But that don't excuse me. I should have found a better way."

"Yes, perhaps. But you've had some time to think about it. Have you found any other way you could have handled it . . . " Tofu held up his hand, "and I don't want to hear if I'd had this or that; you didn't. If you found a better way to handle it with the materials at hand, I want to hear it; if not, give yourself a break."

"Say! I never thought of it in quite that way. I was always thinking-- if I'd taken the time to get this or that; but I didn't, I guess, now that you bring it up, I couldn't have done any different. But I still don't have to like it."

"I never said you should like it. Just that you should forgive yourself. You did the best you could."

"Thanks Doc. I really needed that. . . .Um, Doc? Why are you eating rice and vegetables? I know you always said you should have a little meat of some kind. And no pickles. Not that I'm complaining, just making conversation."

Tofu looked embarrassed. He didn't have much in the way of hospitality to offer Ranma.

"Well things are kind of hard right now."

Tofu proceeded to tell Ranma about his troubles. Ranma's open expression led him to tell more that he'd intended.

When the people in the neighborhood found out about the way Akane and Genma had been treating Ranma they were all outraged. Unfortunately that outrage had extended to the dojo, for a while, but it had particularly impacted on the doctor. When they found out that Genma was the trained panda that he'd had around the clinic they'd abandoned him in droves, going to the new clinic instead.

"So I'm kind of hard up for a while. I'm sure they'll come back eventually, all I have to do is hold out until they do. Unfortunately, it's taking longer than I thought it would. I even had to let Kasumi go. "

"Scuse me? Let her go where? Or . . ."

"Not where. She took over for Genma when he went to jail. But I can't even afford the pittance she would accept. It was very good for me. With her around so much I finally got over being so shy around her. She's a very good nurse too. I hated to see her pretty face fall when I told her she couldn't work here anymore. She offered to do it for free, but I can't take advantage of her like that; even if she doesn't think of it that way."

"Doc, ya ever think that she just likes being around you and was using that as an excuse? Geeze, for a smart man sometimes you're really thick."

Tofu stopped eating with his chopsticks still between his lips. The arrested look on his face was priceless.

"Well, I never . . . I thought that . . . well . . . um . . . hmmm."

"Doc, pick a thought, any thought. She likes you as much as you like her. She's just too much a lady to do more than hope. Besides the fact that she thinks that you're too smart to want a homemaker like her . . . you break her heart and I'll break your neck. 'Nough said."

Tofu didn't take offense at what Ranma had said, in fact it made him feel happy that someone with sense was watching out for Kasumi.

"Here Doc, chuck that mess and I'll take ya out for supper." Tofu eyed Ranma doubtfully for a second. "Hey, I said I got paid and I do, I can afford to take you anywhere you want to go. Come on, we'll go to the Neko-Hanten and have ramen."

"It's closed. They all went back to China. There's a nice place just opened down the street, the food is good and the prices are reasonable. We'll go there if that's ok."

.o.

"Bye, Doc, I'll see you soon. You do what I said and call Steven. He'll be so glad to get a good doctor like you he'll probably fall on your neck I'll give him a call and tell him you're comin."

Ranma climbed into his truck and drove off, calling Steven while he drove.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Day two:

Ranma started for the north of Japan. He didn't have any real destination, he was just going.

As he drove he wondered if Tofu and Kasumi would ever do more than look at each other.

Late afternoon found Ranma looking for a place to camp.

.o.

"Wow! Look at that view. I'm stayin' right here for the night." Ranma yawned, stretching his arms over his head and cracking his back. He started unloading his camping gear, tossing his tent on the ground and rummaging around to find the pegs and hammer.

Realizing he was hungry, he decided to put off setting up camp until he'd eaten something. Scrounging around in the supply box he found an MRE, opening it he started to eat as he admired the view. He was looking forward to the sunrise over the valley.

"Excuse me. I'm a park warden." The uniformed man pointed to his badge. "I'm sorry. You can't camp here. It's too dangerous. The cliff is undermined."

"Damn, I was looking forward to the sunrise. I wanted to see it from my tent door. Call me lazy."

"I'll do no such thing. If you want to see the sunrise from your tent that's just common sense, it's warmer. Go down the road three kilometers, turn right, and go to the end of the road. The campground there offers several places where you can see the sunrise and, fortunately for you, they're not popular because they're on the fringes. Just ask Hiiro, he's the ground supervisor."

Ranma started tossing his things back into the truck bed. The Warden helped him, chatting pleasantly about the amenities the park offered.

"There is a tub available but you have to reserve it two days in advance or wait until the free hours, then–I'm afraid–you have to share it."

Ranma snapped the bed cover down and held out his hand to the Warden.

"Sorry I caused trouble, thanks for helping me reload my stuff. I'll see Warden Hiiro and see what he has to say about finding me a camping site."

"No trouble. It'd be trouble if the cliff collapsed and dumped you into the valley. If you want something to eat besides that MRE; you might look hungry. He'll invite you for supper. He's a good man and his wife is a good cook."

Ranma laughed. What was it with everyone? He was a good cook. At least he was better than Akane by a long shot.

At the camp ground, he just drove to the back and parked, looking for the least desirable plot with a good view. He could and had camped on the almost vertical side of a mountain. All he wanted was a good view of the sunrise over the valley.

"Hello! Oi! That's a really bad place to camp; the ground is hard and the plot is really small. If you'd rather, I can find you a nicer place farther into the grounds. Oh, by the way my name's Hiiro."

Ranma looked the older man over. He was lean and compact; not an Artist, more like a runner. His smile was open and friendly, without the crinkles around the eyes that said he was sizing Ranma up.

"This one is fine if it's okay with you. I want to see . . ."

". . . the sunrise over the valley. Ok, the Topside Warden called me about you. That's the best place to camp for the view. Just remember, if a high enough wind comes up your tent might take off on you, so peg it down good. If you need anything else, the office is right over there. Drop in anytime and visit . . . oh. How long do you think you'll be here? I just like to know so I don't let your spot if you leave for the day."

"I didn't think I'd have to pack my gear if I wanted to go somewhere for an hour or two." Ranma was used to Nerima. There wasn't much crime there, other than the excessive assault and battery on a certain Wild Horse.

"Oh. Well, you really don't, but so many people are suspicious these days and pack up every day unless they are going to stay. But you can trust your gear with us. I walk the grounds almost continuously from eight in the morning til seven or eight in the evening. I know almost everything that goes on here and I keep an eye on things. What's your name?"

"Gah! Sorry! Really, I don't know where my manners are. Name's Saotome Ranma. Pleased to meetcha."

"Well, you young things weren't raised the way my generation was. That's okay. Pleased to meet you also. . . . Well, I'll get on my way and let you get your camp set up in peace. Unless you need some help with that tent?"

Ranma, glad that he didn't have to try to zip two one-man tents together, shook his head remarking that it wouldn't take him more than ten minutes to get the job done.

After setting up camp, Ranma decided to see the rest of the grounds and maybe try to locate a fire pit so he could cook something rather than dipping into his supply of emergency rations.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Steven, you better come. There's a nun here and she wants to speak to you. I know you don't hold with all that 'stuff' but she seems very intense."

"I'll see her. Show her in...You'd better stay. too."

"I am Saotome Nodoka. Thank you for seeing me. I have brought this for you to present to my son. It is the family sword. Please tell my son that I am entering the Fukuda monastery where I will spend the rest of my days in prayer and fasting. Praying for his health and well being. I will not pray for his forgiveness as I know that is not possible."

"Holy shit!"

"Oooh, yeeeah."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma woke the next morning and saw his sunrise. It was as beautiful as he had hoped it would be. It filled the sky with streamers of cloud in shades of pink, peach, and yellow, spreading itself over the valley below; the valley was still hidden in shades of gray; from the gray green pine trees to the filmy gray of a light ground fog.

Ranma watched in silence until the rising sun started dissolving the fog. Then he started for the bath house. If he got there early enough he could get in a quick soak before anyone else got there.

No such luck. "Hello? I'm sorry. I think there has been a mistake. We reserved the tub for this morning to watch the sun rise. Unfortunately we didn't get up soon enough."

Ranma thought quick. He sank down until he was neck deep in the tub and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. In the confusion of getting several other people, some of them children, into the tub, he could get out and away before he had to answer questions he didn't want to.

"Hey look sweetie, here's a young man just your age. You can talk to him while we have a nice soak."

The older woman gave her husband one of those looks only a wife could give a man. A combination of exasperation and love that made Ranma smile to himself.

"What if the young man wants his privacy? He might not want to share the tub with a bunch of rude Americans."

"Well he's stuck now, unless he wants to get out starkers and run. Kelly will be here in a second. Sorry about this. But we _did_ reserve the tub first."

Ranma bit his lip for the split second it took him to decide. "I just assumed that since no one was here, it was free. I don't mind sharing but you might not want your daughter to see me. I got a few scars that tend to freak sensitive people out."

Ranma stood up enough that the couple could see his shoulder and turned sideways to show part of his back. To his astonishment the woman just blinked and the man squinted slightly pulling at his lower lip.

"Hmmm . . . nasty. How did you get . . . never mind, not my business. Kelly won't get upset, I'm sure she's seen worse. Ah, here she is now."

A girl about Ranma's age popped her head in the door and asked if there were enough towels because she wasn't getting out and getting cold to go find more later. Her expression changed. "I heard you say that there was a geek for me to ignore. That's no geek. Hey! Nasty set of scars there. Have a run in with a lion?"

Ranma submerged himself but he could hear her mother telling her that she'd been rude; that maybe he didn't want to discuss it. Ranma held his breath until his head started to sing. When he was sure he wasn't six shades of red he started to surface but before he could do more than form the idea he felt hands under his arms as the man scooped him up into his arms and surged to the surface.

"Hey whadja do that for?"

"Damn it boy, you scared the life out of us. I thought you'd had a seizure or something. How long can you hold your breath?"

"I dunno. I've never been pushed beyond having my ears start to ring. Um . . . sorry I scared ya. And I'm not especially sensitive about my scars, I just get tired of people pukin' and stuff."

Kelly chose to interject at that moment. "Well that's not good. I mean the scars are gross but that's no reason to be stupid about it. You ought to get a keloid reduction done on that shoulder. Your back won't respond too well, the scar is too large. But something could be done. Right, Daddy?"

"Kelly. Perhaps the young man doesn't want anything done. And if I'm not mistaken, we've all forgotten our manners." The man turned back to Ranma and introduced himself and his family. "This is Kelly, I'm Jeff and that's my wife, Grace. Parker. And you are?"

"Saotome Ranma, sorry about this."

Ranma ducked his head, he needed to get out of the tub and away from this family before they realized who he was and got scared.

"HEY!" Ranma yelped and jumped half way across the room, then he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.

"You're the guy who killed that wyvern. I saw it on tv. That was really cool! I wish I could do stuff like that. I'm gonna be a daemon hunter when I grow up. Just like you."

Ranma eyed the kid with more than a little disfavor. He was way too flinchy to have people yelling behind his back and said so.

"Look, I'm minding your business with that kid, but I think I need to have a talk with him. If you don't mind."

"What will you tell Mike?"

"All about the down side of being what I am. It's not all fun and games; in fact most of it isn't."

"I think I'd prefer to sit in on this, if you don't mind."

"Sure." Ranma shrugged. He wasn't pulling any punches with this kid; so if the rest of the family wanted to sit in on it--fine.

Ranma dried off and got dressed, meeting the family in the engawa

"Come with us and have breakfast. We'll talk over coffee."

.o.

"OK kid, tell me why you want to be a George." Ranma eyed the kid with little hope. He was about twelve and full of himself. Ranma wondered if he'd ever been that stupid.

"Well, I want to get on tv, I want everyone to respect me, I . . . well you know."

"No, I don't know. Here's how it really is. It's hard; I train hard, I fight, I get hurt, friends die and no one wants to know me. Everyone I work with is either scared of me or wants to make a rep by beatin' my butt. The only people I have are my secondary team, my girl friend, and the other members of the George team. Actually, there are quite a few of them, but that only leaves me open to the pain of having one of them get killed."

Ranma eyed the kid, he didn't think he was getting through at all.

"So you train hard. I practice the arts myself. I can take it."

Ranma wanted to bang his head on something hard, this wasn't going the way he'd hoped at all. If he didn't get thought to this kid, he'd spend the rest of his life trying to be something he couldn't.

Kelly smacked Mike in the back of the head and grumped, "You're not listening to him at all are you? You can't even get yellow and you want to be a . . . what did you call it?"

"A George. After the Christian Saint George the Dragon slayer." Turning to Jeff, Sr. Ranma made his offer. "I'll tell you what. I haven't done my training yet. So what do you say he trains with me? I'm on vacation, so I'll just run him through the same routine that I went through at his age."

"Sounds ok to me, but I'll go along too. If you don't mind."

"Sure . . . anyone else want to come?"

Kelly decided to go too, but Grace shook her head saying she was only around to pick up the pieces.

"Ok, first we'll run; then we'll do kata, after that; striking board and cool down. Maybe an hour of yoga. Can't get stiff."

Ranma started out up hill, with Jeff, Mike, and Kelly right behind him. They managed to keep up for about half the distance, then Mike started flagging.

"Slow down some."

"Nope. Ya gotta keep up."

"I can't! How did you keep up?"

"I learned to keep up from the hard end of a strap. Run or get hit."

Mike looked startled, gasping, "You mean your Sensei hit you? What did your parents have to say about that?"

Ranma shrugged. "Mom wasn't around and pop was my teacher. Now, you gonna run or cry?"

"Neither. It's too hard. I'll admit I'm not in that kind of shape. What's next?"

Ranma decided to cut the kid some slack telling him that he'd finish his run and then they'd do kata. Kelly, who'd been jogging in place along with Big Jeff, said she'd go as far as she could and wait for them to swing back.

Kelly and Big Jeff had to quit at the same time so Ranma finished his run and caught them up where they'd dropped out.

"We need to head back to the camp, there's a striking board there and I want to see how good he is at controlled strikes. Then I'll show him my hands and see what he thinks. Let's go."

.o.

At the striking board, Mike watched as Ranma went through a short exercise and then refused to even try.

"Look, I know you're trying to convince me that I don't want to do this. But you aren't going to succeed, I know all the scare tactics and I'm not worried. You're doing it after all. Why are you doing it?"

Ranma shrugged. "Ok. Why am I doing it? . . . I kinda fell into it by accident. There's a long sad back story that you aren't going to hear. But I do it so kids like you can live long enough to get over being stupid. I don't figure I'll see thirty."

"Yeah right! You're stronger than anyone else in the world. So what do you have to be scared of?"

Ranma rubbed the back of his neck in dismay. This kid just wasn't going to learn. Not unless he really got harsh.

"No. You don't get it do you? There's always someone out there stronger, faster, better, meaner than you. I'll run into somethin' that eats me, sooner or later. Unless I'm really lucky, have good backup and keep my head; chances are I'll go down hard. I really don't like the odds one bit. That's one of the reasons I'm out here.

"And you think killing the wyvern was so cool. Well you didn't think about it or you didn't see the whole thing. I had to cripple it first and that was because I got careless. I didn't have simple stuff that I should have had. I wasn't armored like I should have been. I knew that thing was out there but I didn't wait for reconnaissance or anything like I should have. I just went off half cocked so I had to hurt it before I killed it. That's the other reason I'm out here running around trying to figure out what kind of fool I am. I'm seventeen and I feel like I'm a hundred. I'm just a kid myself and grown men are lookin' to me for answers and I'm not even sure what the questions are."

Ranma looked up from picking at a callous to see three sets of astonished eyes looking at him.

Jeff reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

"I think you'll do well. You'll probably live to see grandchildren. You're learning from every mistake you make. And I know grown men who can't do that. Just try to lighten up on yourself a little."

"Can't. If I lighten up, I'll get someone else killed. If I screw up my life – well it's not that big a deal it's so screwed up already it can't get much more FUBAR."

Kelly was eyeing Ranma with a mixture of dismay and amusement.

"Wow! You're really full of yourself, aren't you?"

Ranma blinked at her and could only come up with the really inelegant rejoice of 'Huh?'

"Well . . . you said that there is this whole organization behind you. Aren't there lots of other people – you said grown ups – with jobs they're supposed to do? Why do you have to do it all? They do their jobs, you do yours; everybody watches everybody else's backs and it should work out fairly well. After all, they're grown up men with minds of their own. Why are you responsible for what they do-- you hold a gun to their head and make them? They chose. You're not responsible for the consequences of their choices. Only for your own. Right? . . . Daddy, tell him. You're always tellin' us."

Ranma had the most arrested expression on his face. He'd always been told or at least had it implied that he was responsible for whatever happened around him. It was always his fault – not.

Mike suddenly reentered the conversation with a question. "How come it's all your fault if something goes wrong. Like with that wyvern. Where was your backup and stuff?"

"Didn't need any–I thought--it was just a quick job. But the wyvern turned out to be bigger than what we thought it would be, and it . . . and I... Shit! Just rub my nose in it why don't ya?"

"I'm sorry, son. But you need to be careful. You're developing a real god complex and that will get you killed."

"How come you're so smart? I mean . . . damn, _that_ didn't come out quite right."

"I'm a policeman from Chicago. We get freshmen like you all the time. You'll get yourself killed sure enough, if you don't learn you're not responsible for everything. You got one good thing going for you in that you realize that there's always something badder than you around somewhere but you need to learn to lean on others. You're wearing yourself out trying to do other people's jobs, as well as your own. Think about it. When it comes down to the crunch you go out and mash it all by yourself."

"But how can I ask others to risk their lives? It's my. . . ."

Kelly reached out, swatted Ranma on the shoulder and nearly got her arm broken as Ranma blocked it and turned her wrist back on itself.

"Don't do that! Damnit, here let me see it."

Kelly had cradled her throbbing wrist against her chest with a pained cry.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't expect that or I wouldn't have hurt you. You can't be doing things like that to a combat vet. You never sneak up on me either."

Ranma didn't see the look on Mike's face as he was busy stroking Kelly's wrist to see what he'd done to it.

"Well, it's only slightly strained. I'll heal it for you. Hold still. This'll feel a little hot."

Kelly hesitantly let her wrist stay cradled in Ranma's hands and then smiled as she felt the gentle heat of Ranma's healing.

"How's that? Better?"

"Yeah. And see? No one's getting on you for it either."

"No, young lady, but I'll be having something to say to you later for your little . . . gaffe. You don't smack springers. You don't smack your brother either. Hitting is bad. You know that. Outside the dojo and a match or exercise, what have I told you?"

"No smacking people. I'm sorry, I forgot. You gonna punish me?"

"Of course I am."

"NO!! Don't . . . it was my fault . . . I'll take the punishment. Don't hurt her. Please."

Again three sets of eyes looked at Ranma like he was slightly off somehow.

Jeff eyed Ranma for a long time looking him up and down with a funny expression.

"What would your father have done to you for that kind of action?"

Ranma considered for a moment, "Well . . . he'd have taken a strap to me until I near passed out and then hung me from a tree to teach me what to do with my hands. Like . . . um . . . Kelly! Hey!"

Kelly was headed for camp at a dead run and Mike was looking sick.

"I don't like your dad. I wish he was here so I could tell him so. Our Dad _never_ hits us. I mean not like that. A smack on the butt with his hand is as far as he's ever gone and he was _really_ mad. He says that if you have to hit a kid, you've already lost control. I better catch up with K-k- k-elly."

Ranma stared after Mike's retreating back.

"Was he cryin' over me? I don't get it. You people don't even know me and he's . . . well hell."

Ranma turned to see Jeff looking at Ranma like he wasn't sure if he wanted to punch someone or cry himself.

"You still live with him? You should report him to the authorities. Or at least your commanding officer."

"Pop's in the prison place. I'm a civilian advisor so I don't really have a commanding officer. Steven knows all about it and that's one of the reasons I like it at the Compound. They don't smack me around for nothing. I get punished for doing bad things but I know exactly what I'm being punished for and what it's going to be. Got a book and everything. They can get a little harsh but I'm used to that."

"Uh, sorry about freaking out there. But could you tell me– what is Kelly's punishment for smackin' me? If you don't mind."

"Well, she hates doing dishes; so I think she'll do dishes for a week. All by herself. That'll make Grace happy too, she doesn't like dishes either."

Ranma laughed so hard he nearly fell over.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"I know why that poor kid is messed up."

"Yes, dear. He's a good boy in a very odd situation."

"Indeed he is, he went from having almost no control over himself or his life, to being completely responsible for himself as well as others. It's no wonder he's feeling stressed and confused."

"Yes, but he seems to be handling it fairly well. At least he has so far."

"Well he said he had someone to talk to. I just hope he gets over the idea he's responsible for everything that happens."

"He looked like he was thinking seriously about what you told me, Kelly said. I hope it helped."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma packed up and left the camp ground at noon. He'd a lot to think about and had decided to spend the afternoon driving to the next camp ground (I just hope that kid listened to me.)

Eyeing the next campground Ranma decided to rent a room instead. The grounds were dirty and crowded with camps.

"Hey! Anybody here?"

Ranma rang the bell again and was rewarded by a clean looking elderly lady coming out of the back.

"You want a room for yourself? Anyone else? No. Aren't you a little young to be running around the country side by yourself?"

"No ma'am. I'm older than I look. I'm quiet and clean and don't want any trouble. I just need a room for the night. If you don't want me, just say so and I'll move along."

"No. I'm sorry. I'm just a nosy old lady with too much time on her hands and a big bump of curiosity. I've got a really nice room right by the office. That ok?"

Ranma realized that if he wanted a room that was the one he'd take and like it. He didn't care. He'd meant what he'd said. He wanted to sleep in and spend some time thinking about what he'd learned from the Parkers.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be here a couple of days. I . . . um . . . is there a good restaurant nearby? I can cook but . . ."

"Sorry. No cooking in the rooms, too much chance of a fire. Go down two blocks and turn right- - nice place; beef hot pot. My son-in-law runs it. But the food is good and prices are reasonable or I wouldn't recommend it no matter who ran it."

The lady finished up the paper work and took payment in advance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Whoot! Ranma's really on a roll. Or at least I am. Next chapter Ranma finds out about the dragon and we see Bakusai Tenketsu in action.


	38. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

'Oh man that was good, I'm so full, I think I ate it all. Or at least most of it.'

Ranma went back to his room and hooked up his lap top. He'd made Doris promise to have all the reports he was supposed to read transferred to file on his computer so he could get caught up on them.

As he read, he wondered what he was missing. He felt like something was just out of he's reach, something was tantalizingly right at the edge of consciousness. Ranma knew better than to try to force it. It would come to him in it's own good time when it was supposed to.

He spent the rest of the late afternoon reading reports.

He spent the next five days lazing around in his room, wandering around the quaint old village, reading reports, calling all his friends, talking to Ryouga and cruising the local strip in the pickup. Things that a normal seventeen year old took for granted but that Ranma had never done.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Day eight

"Hey Gradma, I'm leavin'. Had a nice time here."

"Sad to see you go, Boy. Never thought I'd say that about an unaccompanied teenager but there you are. Never say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Depends on the dog, you know."

"Who's a dog? You're much too pretty to be callin' yourself a dog. Come on, Old Woman, here's my key. Gimme a hug and send me on my way with a smile. Thanks."

Ranma had formed a good relationship with the old lady and was a little sad to leave but something was telling him to get back on the road. So, he was headed out this morning, much to the old lady's vocal exasperation.

"I don't know why you have to go so soon. Why don't you stay around a few more days? I'll even cut you some slack on the rent."

"I'd really like to but something's tellin' me to move on. So I guess I'd better. You know what happened the last time I ignored a feeling. I'll be keepin' in touch, though. And I'll be back some day, I promise."

Ranma turned in his key and gave her a hug then climbed into his truck and headed for the mountains farther north.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma finally climbed out of the truck, which he'd parked on the scenic pullout, and started walking toward the head of the line. As he passed knots of people, he asked the same question.

"Hey, what's the hold up? Have any idea? No? Ok, thanks."

Finally he found a group who seemed to know something. There had been a rock slide and the road was blocked. But that was all they knew.

(What to do, what to do. I'll go back to the village and get tea.)

Ranma sat in the old-fashioned tea house and drank tea and listened to the conversations around him. Everyone seemed to think that someone should do something about the rock slide but no one could decide what. Some wanted the highway department to take the initiative, others thought the prefecture should do something; still others were sure that it was the city's domain. As he listened Ranma could only thank his lucky stars that he wasn't in this mess.

He realized that he had it relatively easy in the compound, if Steven didn't tell him what he should do it was up to him to make up his own mind and he was his own worst critic.

". . . Bakusai Tenketsu! That's what!"

Ranma blinked back into the world.

"The old guy was a master of that technique. It's been used around here for years to clear the roads and make gravel and such. But he died last winter and the young snots around here don't care for that kind of thing; all dynamite and blasting powders and fertilizer diesel messes. No interest in traditional methods; just blow stuff up--bang--and rocks flyin' everywhere instead of controllin' stuff so it don't break every window around."

The other old men all nodded wisely and sipped tea, shuddering at the carelessness of the younger generation.

"Excuse me, sirs. I heard what you were saying. Could you fill me in on some more of the details? I'm interested."

"Ha! Told ya, Miroku. Some of the younger generation are interested."

"Yeah, yeah, like that nevvy of yours. The minute he found out that it's not fighting; he quit it cold as a blizzard. All they want to do is fight and tear up stuff."

Ranma patiently waited until attention was turned back to him. (I can't spend my life running from one thing to another. I'll just wait. They'll run down in a while. Besides, it's kind of interestin)

"Sorry boy. We're all old farts and our minds tend to wander. What was it you were asking?"

"Just wondered why you were talking about the Bakusai Tenketsu."

"Well, that road up yonder is blocked and if someone around here knew Bakusai Tenketsu we'd have it cleared in no time, but since old Saito died we have to wait for a blaster to come from the mines down Osaka way. It'll take a day just for him to get here, then he has to figure out how much blasting compound he'll need. That stuff is pretty strictly controlled ya know. Then wait again for the stuff to come, then . . . well, you see. It'll be day after tomorrow before it's all cleared out and a mess to get people to come down off the mountain and get rooms, some of those idiots will want to stay right there but it's too cold in these mountains for that and they'll argue a donkey into the ground . . . oh, I'll stop blabbering some time soon."

Ranma suddenly found his fingernails very interesting. He didn't know if they would believe him or not and he didn't want to be laughed at. That made him angry just because.

"What is it boy, spit it out before it chokes you . . . never mind! You'll talk when you're ready. I'll just pour you some tea and keep yakking until you work up the nerve. Never saw such a shy boy."

The old man suited actions to words and poured Ranma a fresh cup of tea and pushed the plate of snacks closer.

"Here, eat! Never saw a boy your age that wasn't half starved all the time. But back to the conversation. There's only a few practitioners left, there's that pervert Happosai; I wouldn't let that old goat near_ my_ wife and she's two days younger than dirt. Some old Chinese woman, but she went back to China and two young fools that probably learned it thinking it was a combat technique, bet they were disappointed. But that still leaves us up a creek. I know of two middle- aged men who have the capacity to learn but Saito wasn't ready to hand the technique down and then he was dead. Old fool."

"I can do it."

"What ya say boy. Speak up. We're all old and half deaf."

"I said. 'I can do it' I know the Bakusai tenketsu."

"Well I never in all my born days. I'd tease ya and call ya a liar but by the look on your face that's what you're expecting . . . here, Ishigaka-kun call the mayor. And tell him that it's either Hibiki or Saotome here in the tea house. Come talk to him."

Ranma stared at the old man like he'd never seen him before that very second. They were going to believe him just like that. He'd never had anything like that happen to him before, he was used to having to prove himself over and over before anyone would take him at his word.

"You're going to just believe me? Just like that? Why?"

The old man looked at his cronies and shrugged, they all either shrugged or shook their heads.

"Well, what reason would you have to lie about something that important and all we have to do is take you up the mountain and let you make a fool of yourself. Don't seen smart to me but I'm just an old fool. Where the hell did you learn it?"

"From Cologne, the old Chinese lady you were talking about and Happosai is--_was--_my father's teacher. By the way, you're right about that ol' pervert. And I can whip his ass anytime. Frankly I hate to admit I even know the old panty thief. I have managed to avoid even thinking about him for almost a year and I'd like to keep it that way. Old freak."

Ranma had in fact almost forgotten about Happosai and was glad he had. The embarrassment of having that pervert trying to get him to turn girl and wear lingerie was better left in the past. He couldn't understand why he'd put up with half what he had. But that was the past and good riddance to it.

"Look, if things are going to be as bad as you say, I think I need to find a room as soon as possible. I'll call Steven, my boss, and see what he says. I don't know if I should use the Bakusai Tenketsu I . . . well, I never used it for much except gettin' myself out of a collapsed building. I'm not sure . . . "

"Boy, if you can break a rock, you can control the break, it's all or nothing with the Bakusai. Don't ya know your own techniques?"

"Like I said . . . I don't use it much . . . I'm a fighter. If it don't involve combat, I don't use it. But I'm willing to give it a try if you all want me too. I'm going to see about a room across the street, before they're all taken. I don't fancy camping out this high up in the mountains here in the north if I don't have to."

Ranma was rather proud of himself. He'd managed to get through two fairly upsetting conversations without sounding like a rice farmer. (Someone pat me on the back.)

After getting a room and parking his truck, Ranma went back to the tea house to see if the mayor had shown up yet. He was just arriving and, of course, sat Ranma down with tea and snacks. Not that he minded.

"So you know the Bakusai Tenketsu, do you? We could use your help if you do. I understand that you need to call someone for permission."

"Not permission exactly. But I respect Steven's opinion and I'm not sure whether I should even do this or not, so I'm gonna call him and discuss it, after I find out exactly what you want me to do. So why don't you just tell me what it is, exactly, you want from me."

Ranma watched as the mayor settled himself more comfortably on the zafu and sipped his tea as he considered what to say. His kind was always careful to know exactly what he was going to say before he even started. Ranma possessed himself of all the patience he had at his command and waited until the man was ready to talk, even though he was ready to shake the man til his teeth rattled.

"Well . . . if we wait for the blaster to come, it'll be two or three days before the road is clear and that'll work a real hardship on some of the people trapped. They don't have the resources to stay in a hotel for that long, even if we had enough rooms around here for them and I don't like having the locals host them . . . that has its own set of problems. But enough of that, you're too young to want to listen to that kind of old man worrying."

Ranma was actually interested in that. It was an insight into emergency management that he wanted to pursue, but he let the mayor get on with his rambling speech

"So . . . we need you to use the Bakusai Tenketsu to clear the road. We can haul away the stones if they are small enough. We have back hoes, trucks and front end loaders enough for that, it's just that most of the rocks are fairly big; several the size of a house, and most too big to fit into the bed. So if you could just blast them into manageable sizes we can handle removal. Soo . . . will you do it?"

"I'll call Steven and get right back to you. I'll even just sit here if you don't mind. I'm not going to say anything that you can't over hear."

The mayor nodded. So Ranma flipped his phone open and speed dialed Steven.

"Hey, Steven, what's up?"

"Not much. What's up with you? When you coming back?"

Ranma laughed easily. Every time he called anyone that was the first thing they wanted to know.

"Soon, I think. Look, I got a situation and I need your advice."

"Bad?"

"Naw. Not for me anyway. There's a rock slide blocking the road and the locals want me to use Bakusai Tenketsu to open the road. I can do it but I don't use the technique and I'm a little doubtful of complete control. I'm not gonna blow up anything but I could break some windows or something."

"Ranma, all you have to do is hook up your lap top. I'll send you a release form, have the Mayor or Director of Public Works sign it and then blast away."

"Ok, that'll work fine."

"Come home soon, Ranma. We miss you."

"I'm coming home in a few more days. I miss you too, ya old fart."

"Brat."

Ranma shut his phone and told the mayor what Steven had said; the mayor agreed to sign the release if it was all right for a lawyer to go over it. Ranma agreed to that and hooked up the laptop and printed out the form.

While they were waiting for the Lawyer to get through with the release, Ranma went up to the slide and started looking around. Most of the rocks were about the size of a small car but there were several that were huge. After eye balling the mess, Ranma slid and slithered his way to the command post.

"Here you shouldn't be wandering around on that slide. You could get hurt. Where's your head?"

Ranma eyed the man for a moment then decided he wasn't trying to be hateful he was just frazzled and cranky.

"My head's on my shoulders. Where's yours?" Ranma smiled and the man smiled back. "I wasn't just wandering around for the fun of it. I'm Saotome."

"And that's important because?"

Ranma eyed the man with some disfavor, this wasn't going to be as easy as he'd thought.

"Saotome Ranma. The . . ."

"Oh hell, where's _my_ head? I'm sorry Saotome-san, it's just that you're so young the name didn't ring a bell at first. Please have some tea and I'll get the maps and charts."

Ranma grimaced, he didn't want any more tea, his kidneys were floating as it was.

But he wound up drinking more tea as the engineer showed him the map of the road way and the charts that outlined what kind of rock he would be dealing with. As he listened to the engineer, he suddenly realized that he was going to use geometry to do this right. (I'll be dammed! It really is handy.)

"Look, I need to understand the crystalline structure of the rock, if I don't, I'll wind up blasting the rocks into sharp shards and having them flying all over. If I blast across the grain, it'll fly everywhere. If I go with, it'll split into nice slabs that I can break down farther without a bunch of debris flying around like kunai. So if the structure is too fragmented, we'll have to use blasting drapes.

"What?! I'm not just some dumb jock. I thought about this a long time ago, when I first learned the technique from Cologne. I master every technique I learn, even if I don't think I'll ever actually use it. I'm just wary because I haven't practiced the Bakusai Tenketsu like I do combat techniques."

"I see . . . hmmm. Most of the rock around here is schist and the rest is volcanic. Granite and that. So you've got a pure crystalline structure to work with in most of the rocks. The fall is almost all granite. And the schist is very shale like in its structure. However most of the schist is on the other side of the fall and you won't get to that until tomorrow."

Ranma eyed the map and had the man show him the area of the fall. It was fairly long, covering almost a quarter mile. The real problem was that the largest rocks had acted like dams and held quite a bit of rock on the road bed, instead of letting it fall farther down the mountain. He'd see how much he could get done in an hour of easy work and then give them an estimate of how long it would take to do the whole job. He said as much to the engineer and watched as the man smiled at him in an easy manner.

"Just take your time. I don't want you to over-tire yourself. Better to take it easy and get the whole job done rather than wear yourself out and have to rest before you can finish it. We had old Saito wear himself out once and have to rest for three days before he could finish the job. Left us with only one lane for all that time."

So Ranma started out easy, breaking along the edge of the fall, turning seven and eight ton boulders into gravel. It was actually easier to break it small. He didn't have to worry so much about large pieces flying around.

As he worked Ranma controlled the Bakusai Tenketsu. It was much easier than he'd thought it would be. All he had to do was break the rock into gravel. The road crews took care of the removal.

Ranma approached the crew boss. "Hey. While you're cleaning up this gravel. I'm gonna take a rest over there under that tree."

The boss just nodded absently and flagged the next truck into place.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma looked up from a light doze to see a police officer walking his way.

"Hey! You can't be here. You could get hurt."

"Huh. I'm just here until they need me again. I'm . . ."

The officer shook his head. "They don't need some kid hanging around. Come on, I'll get you out of the construction site and we'll get a soda. I need to talk to you about putting yourself in danger. You kids don't have sense sometimes. I know it seems like a big adventure. But only the most careless of parents would let a child hang around a place like this. I'm sure you don't consider yourself a child at what . . . fourteen or thereabouts?"

"I'm seventeen."

Ranma decided it would be easier if he just went along with the Officer until they got to the site trailer, then he could have the Site Boss explain things.

"Even at seventeen you have no business hanging around heavy machinery. You could get run over. Then how would your parents feel."

The officer reached over and gave Ranma a slight shake by the shoulder.

Ranma bit his lip, then decided he was through being ashamed of his pop and hiding the truth. He'd faced up to things fairly well in the Compound everyone knew, more or less, what his early child hood had been like, but he'd always tried to hide it from the common public. No more.

"I don't think they would care much one way or the other. My pop is in prison and my mom was never around much. But . . ."

"Hey, Saotome. We need you now. Where are you going?" The Site Boss came hurrying up with a handful of papers. "Here . . . I signed. Now you sign and we'll each have a copy. How much longer do you think it will take you to get through?"

The Site Boss turned to the Policeman and snapped. "I told you to keep people out of the site, not harass the workers. I got a mess on the road still and he's got plenty to do besides gossip with you. Come on, Saotome. I know you got rested . . . "The Boss rubbed the back of his neck. "Damn it, hey officer, I'm sorry. This mess has me all on edge. I don't like it that Saotome is so young. I know he's good but I don't like a kid being in a construction zone, so I bit your head off." The boss turned to Ranma. "My son is older than you and I wouldn't let him do this job, so I'm on edge about that, too." He held up his hands to stop Ranma's anticipated protests. "I'm sure you're very good, I saw how you did the preliminary blasts. But it just goes against the grain. You should be safe on the sidelines bettin' with your friends about how long it'll take, not slaving away with us."

Ranma got 'warm fuzzes' as Sunny would say. This man was upset because he thought Ranma should be drinking soda and betting on time frames, not blasting rock. It felt good.

"Well thanks. But I am rested now so let's get going on this. I don't think I'll get done today, it's too late a start but, with lighting, I can work late into the night. I'll stop when I get tired, too much a chance of making a mistake when I'm tired. And since this isn't life or death, I'm taking it easy on myself."

Ranma folded his copy of the release and stuffed it into a pocket of his pants.

Ranma did take it easy on himself. He worked up enough rock to keep the trucks busy and then rested. He also made sure that he wasn't in the way of the equipment. It was working out well, he spent time with the engineer and made sure that he was breaking the rock into useful gravel, saying he didn't see any need to waste the materials.

At seven P.M. he called a rest stop and told the Boss he was getting hungry. Ranma was startled when the Boss looked at him and threw a fit. He told Ranma to go down to the site trailer and sit down.

Ranma plopped down at the empty desk in the trailer and started when he got a good look at himself in the mirrored wall. He was filthy, covered with rock dust and sand. He was so dirty that his hair was almost white.

Deciding that he needed to do something rather than sit and fidget, Ranma went to his truck and got his backpack. He could read a few reports and try again to figure out what was bothering him.

After setting up his laptop, he connected to the net and downloaded a new batch of files. He started reading the first one and was soon engrossed in the report.

"Hello? Someone order Ramen? Good noodles here."

Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin. Shampoo? What the hell??

"In here. Shampoo? That you?"

"Nihao, Ranma. Shampoo happy to see Ex-Arien. You hungry?"

Ranma eyed Shampoo warily. He was waiting for her to glomp him or raise hell or something. But all she did was smile at him.

"Shampoo! Where are you? Is the customer in here? The Site Boss said he would be."

Mousse stuck his head in the door and Ranma was startled to see that Mousse had jade green eyes.

"Hey, Mousse, what the hell?"

"Saotome, you the customer? If you are, I'll have to call for more, we only brought two bowls of noodles."

"Husband, you not fight with Ranma. We talk about before. No jealous."

"Shampoo. I promised you not to fight with him and I meant it."

Ranma was getting more confused by the second. He had thought that Shampoo wouldn't give up on him no matter what Cologne said and Mousse was blind. "OK, OK . . . time out. What the hell is going on here? I need intel. Speak to me."

Mousse plopped a bowl of noodles in front of Ranma and started talking.

When Cologne had had enough of Shampoo sulking and whining, she had taken both teens back to China and spent three days haranguing the Council until they'd agreed to nullify Shampoo's engagement to Ranma. Then she'd gotten Mousse an eye operation called Lasic Laser Surgery, which had fixed his sight. "That's great. It was always sad that you were so blind, but funny too." Then he'd been told to get himself together and beat Shampoo, which he'd done, and now they were married and, Shampoo admitted, very happy.

"Husband very good to Shampoo. We work out every day. He very good, teach Shampoo hidden weapon techniques. Not like Ranma tell Shampoo girl not fight. Stupid Ranma! Shampoo sorry ever waste time on rock head. You marry kitchen destroyer yet?"

"No, Akane and I, well . . when I broke it off with you, I broke it off with all my fiancees. Akane and I just can't get along. Changing the subject, I'm glad you're happy. You deserve to be. But where's Cologne?"

Mousse was doing all the talking as his Japanese was better than Shampoo's. He told Ranma that Cologne had stayed in China at the Council's request.

"Something is going on but no one will tell us what it is. I've asked Cologne and Happosai to tell me what the trouble is but not a peep."

Ranma choked on a mouthful of noodles, when he got his throat cleared he managed in a strangled tone, "The ol' Freak and the ol' Ghoul together . . . that's downright frightening."

"Shampoo not know how they not kill each other. All they do argue, argue. Yell lots. Shampoo glad here in Japan. Too, too much stupid."

Ranma got a sudden cold chill. Something was still eating at him and it had something to do with not only Cologne but Happosai being in China. (What . . . what . . . )

"Happosai very bad man, glomp Shampoo all time. Shampoo no like. Feel bad make Ranma feel bad glomp all time. He tell Shampoo she foolish girl. See big bird, no bird like that in China. Say not see. Shampoo silly sometime but not stupid, know what see."

"Honey, you know they all said you saw a big crane. I'm not arguing with you because I didn't see it. But why would they . . ."

Shampoo interrupted angrily, "They all say save face. Shampoo say it big bad bird. Shampoo not know name for what see. Snake bird thing. Very bad. Hear Head of Council argue with Grandmother. Say call in unlucky department, Council say not. Shampoo think Grandmother send Shampoo and Mousse to Japan keep away from bad thing."

Ranma's battle aura flared almost out of control as he got a very bad feeling about the whole China thing. He needed to find out what was going on and fast, but he didn't know how.

Mousse started, he had felt Ranma's aura before, but it hadn't been anything like this.

"Ranma, I need to ask you something, it's important at least to me" at Ranma's distracted nod he reached out a hand and asked. "May I touch you? Please, it's really important."

Ranma clicked back to the present. "Huh? Touch me? I don't understand. You've touched me before, why now. What do you want?'

"Ranma I need to touch your battle aura. I need to know . . . did you hold back when you fought me?"

"Sure I held back, if I hadn't I'd have probably killed you. If you want to see my aura . . ." Ranma allowed his aura to flare to its full power. "There, satisfied?"

Mousse and Shampoo both paled, Ranma's aura at full power was overwhelming and Shampoo nearly fainted.

"Why you do that? Why you not use full strength, you make fool of Mousse?"

"Better to make a fool of him than hamburger. Besides, Pop would have flattened me. He never allowed me to use my full aura. He'd beaten the controls into me before I even knew what he was doing. But getting sold to a gladiator stable taught me to use everything I had and dig down for more."

"You disrespect Mousse, Shampoo not like . . ."

"Shut up, Honey. This is a lot more important than you protecting my non-existent pride." Mousse put his arm around Shampoo and turned to Ranma. "Ranma, what did you just say?"

"About what, not using all my strength or gettin' sold?"

"Getting sold. I heard something abut that when I overheard Cologne and Happosai talking but I discounted it, it's barbaric."

Ranma filled Shampoo and Mousse in on what had happened finishing up ". . . .I have a good home now, even if they sometimes mess up. And I'm actually a, what we call a 'George'. I spend my time 'removing' threats to the populace. In other words I'm a deamon hunter."

"NO, you not be such thing only for Amazon Warrior of highest class to do this. Is not for . . . .is for. . ." Shampoo turned to Mousse suddenly. "You not tell. . . this very, very bad. I see big snake-bird thing. Cologne . . . She lie to me. She say not to worry. Is not for us to do. We go back China now."

Ranma bit his lip, this was as Shampoo said very, very bad. If what was happening was what he thought they could be in very deep shit.

"Look, I got a real bad feeling about this. I got to get that road cleared, I promised. So I got to do that then I need to get in touch with. . . hmm. I'm running out of options real quick. Damnit!"

Shampoo snarled and turned running out the door before Mousse could stop her, not that he tried very hard. They could hear her yelling at the Site boss.

"You, hard hat man! You stupid man. Shampoo know Break Rock technique. Grandmother teach. You bother Ranma when he resting instead of call Shampoo, that why he all dirty, yes? Shampoo do rest of job. No you not argue stupid hard hat man. Use Ranma clear road like use cannon swat fly. Stupid man, stupid Ranma, stupid Grandmother, you not argue, Shampoo not in mood to put up with man."

"Well I guess she told him. Poor sap. How's it really going with her?"

Mousse grinned at Ranma. "Well, since I've loved her as long as I can remember, I would have made do with anything; but since I whipped her fair and square, in a no holds barred all out battle she's really come to at least tolerate me. I think it's turning into love. Mostly because I don't put up with any foolishness from her. I used to let her do whatever she wanted and I hoped it would make her love me but Cologne finally told me there is no love with out respect, so I made her respect me. We don't have a normal Amazonian marriage. I won't put up with most of that stuff. I told her she'd have to have a second husband if she wanted that and he'd better be able to beat me. She's really a nice girl when you know how to manage her."

Ranma shut his mouth, his jaw had dropped--this wasn't the Mousse he remembered. But it had been almost two years now. More like three for him.

"Well, I'm glad. You both deserve to be happy. I'm just sorry I took so long to get my shit together. But all's well that ends well. Now I really need to get on my computer and get in touch with my people. If you could look in this . . . no. . . you said you didn't see it. So . . ."

Ranma swiveled the chair back and forth. Then he took out his Deamondex and opened the files; turning to the laptop he started a file search. The parameters were for any bird/reptile cross or anything that could be called a snake bird, he didn't have much hope but he stared with what he had.

Mousse waited patiently until Ranma stopped pecking at the keyboard. Then he looked at the screen and sighed. "Snake Bird thing. Not very helpful. I tried to find out more myself but you know Shampoo; once she gets upset she's not very good at explaining herself. The only thing I can think of that meets her description is a well. . . you'll think I'm crazy . . . but either a gryphon or a dragon."

Ranma stiffened. "Oh, man, please tell me you didn't just say what I think you said. If it's a dragon we're in such deep shit you won't believe it."

"Ranma you're talking crazy. There's no such thing as a dragon. It's mythological."

"Damnit Mousse, I just killed a wyvern and caught another nestling just two weeks ago. _They are real_. Here, look at this and tell me you know of anything that could make a scar like that, especially on me."

Ranma pulled of his t-shirt and showed Mousse his scars. Mousse just blinked, reached out to touch the scar on his back and sighed.

"Damn. Well, I think we are all in it up to our chins. I can only hope you're wrong."

Ranma shrugged, turning back to look at the progress of his search. "You ever know me to be wrong when I predict a disaster of some sort? I'm a real shit magnet, no mistake." The search finished. "Fuck me! This is real bad. I did a search of all databases available to me and use the parameters unidentified flying object organic and birdlike. I've got a stripe of hits all across the borders of your province and some sightings here in the north. Damn it. What the hell is going on, why do adults do that?"

Mousse looked at the map and the clusters of dots on it. All of them were grouped around the southern borders of his province and across the northern borders of Japan.

"Shit shit shit, I gotta call Steven. Toss me my cell, it's over on the counter and call Shampoo to come in. I need to question her--can you do the Bakusai Tenketsu? Never mind if Shampoo knows it, you do. Go take care of that road for me. . .damnit! I'm sorry, Mousse, I didn't mean to order you around like a Grunt."

"That's okay, this is too important to let personalities get in the way. Besides I'm sure you're used to giving orders and having them obeyed. What is your rank?"

"I don't have one I'm a civilian advisor. I'm too young to be enlisted. You have to be twenty."

"You're not enlisted? I'd think they'd make an exception in your case. You need the authority of some kind of rank. You won't get any respect without it."

Mousse left shaking his head to get Shampoo for Ranma. Ranma stared at the door for a minute then made up his mind about something that had been bothering in on the periphery of his mind for some time.

"Steven, I need some stuff. We got a real problem. I need a thorough search made for sightings of . . what? Ok then I want Shuba. But first. I need a rank. I don't care what rank it is, just something."

Steven scrambled to keep up with Ranma's rapid change of direction. He hated to carry on a conversation about important things on the phone; he couldn't see who he was talking to and he got off track.

"You need a rank. A rank...what...why? Back up a sec. Start at the beginning."

Ranma grabbed his patience with both hands and held on.

"I need a rank like Major or something. No one respects me because I look younger than I am so they just see a smart ass kid getting in the way. With a uniform with rank of some kind they will think twice and maybe give me a chance to open my mouth and make sense. Ok? I don't care if it's honorary or I have to enlist. I should be enlisted anyway. It gives me more protection. Whatever. Now put me in touch with Shuba. When I know something for sure I'll be back in touch with you, until then just be ready for it to hit the fan big time. Shampoo . . I just ran into her and Mousse. She said big snake bird thing so be ready for anything big, bad, nasty and fucking grown-up. Shuba now."

Steven shuddered and put Ranma in touch with Shuba.

"Shuba. Do a full search for ufo, big . . oh already got the parameters from Steven. That's good, I'm getting tired of repeating myself. Search everything you can get your hands on even the international inquisitor and that kind of shit. I'm serious as a heart attack. The Chinese have been hiding something in order to save face but their cover is blown big time. I'm going to do a search in my 'dex and hope to show my informant some pictures that ring a bell. Call me back when you have something I'm sending you the results of my prelim. Now."

Ranma sent Shuba the results of his search and hung up just as Shampoo came back in the door with more noodles.

Hey, where. . . never mind, gimme."

Shampoo took away the empty bowls and set the new ones in front of Ranma.

"You father really sell you? He very bad man, Shampoo angry. Shampoo not know what to say."

"Then don't say anything, it's over. I'm not hidin' what happened. I'm tired of trying to remember who knows what but I got better things to do than spend my time feeling sorry for myself. . . here. Look at these pictures and silhouettes and see if you see anything that looks familiar."

Ranma brushed off Shampoo's fussing without even thinking about it. He set the deamondex in front of her and started the slide show. While he finished his noodles she watched the pictures flash by.

"There. . . there...No, go back two. . .yes! That what shampoo see. Big . . . DRAGON!!. . .Not good, not good . . . very, very bad . . . oh, bad, bad!" Shampoo freaked out completely.

"Shampoo, calm down, you can't freak out on me now. I need you to tell me stuff. Like how long ago did this thing show up and how big is it. Do you know? If not who do I see to find out about it? Why didn't anyone call us in? What are they thinking? Come on. I need you to get it together. Shampoo, stop that right now."

Shampoo was rocking and wailing softly, pulling at her hair. She was completely hysterical.

"Shampoo! Stop! I need you to pull yourself together and talk to me."

Ranma finally resorted to shaking her 'til her teeth rattled. She stopped with a harsh hiccup and smacked his hands away.

"Shampoo ok now. Very bad surprise. Not like. Grandmother she send Mousse with Shampoo to Japan, say need to stay here until council forget about Ranma marriage mess." Shampoo took a cleansing breath, gathered her thoughts, and started her story.

By the time she was finished Ranma felt like banging his head, not to mention a few other heads.

The dragon had popped out of thin air about nine months ago. It had been fairly small as dragons go. About ten feet long, with a wing span of some twenty feet but it kept growing.

"Shampoo not know more and that she only guess at. You talk to Happosai he know everything, old snoop. But Shampoo think you have hard time get tell anything. Too too stubborn old people. Save face loose head. Stupid. Not ask for help."

Shampoo wiped her still teary eyes and waved her hand in a gesture of disgust. Ranma knew he was in for a hard time. The Chinese elders would be more interested in hiding the fact that they couldn't deal with the problem than they would be in taking care of the problem before it got completely out of hand. (If it isn't already, damn them.)

"Ok. Thanks, Shampoo. I think I need to lean on some people and go to China. No you're not going. I don't need to have to argue with you and Mousse before I argue with the Amazon Council. Can't handle it. Not gonna."

Ranma called Steven back and gave him the bad news. Steven snarled and started moving and shaking.

"Ranma by the time you get back here we'll know something. Don't hurry. I'll keep you posted and if we need to I'll fly you back from the nearest airport. Relax until I get back to you."

Ranma closed his phone gently and put it down like it was made of glass. Shampoo had never seen Ranma like this and she was getting scared; when Ranma headed for the door she got out of his way.

Ranma went out to the roadway and walked up to a boulder the size of a large house. He set himself called his full battle aura. "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" The boulder exploded into pea- sized gravel and flew everywhere. The force of the blast went through the boulder and gouged a hole in the cliff-side big enough to put the site trailer in.

"Damn, what the hell was that?"

The Site Boss only knew that a boulder that Mousse had said was a problem had suddenly disappeared in a cloud of dust.

"Oh shit! Ranma isn't happy."

"Ranma very, very mad; too too angry, not happy Ranma."

Shampoo grabbed Mousse and in rapid Chinese explained what had happened. Mousse just shook his head saying only, "I don't feel the least bit sorry for the Elders. They've made one mistake too many and I think it will be the end of the Amazon Nations as we know them. Especially if they continue to anger Ranma and he comes down on them. Hopefully he will have mercy on them."

Ranma sighed, the release had made him feel much better. He turned to the Site Boss and told him to get more trucks. He was going to quit fooling around and get the job done as fast as he could .

"I'm leaving in the morning. I want to go somewhere and see some people. I'll get this cleared away."

Ranma started in, breaking everything in sight; he climbed over piles of sand and gravel instead of waiting for it to be cleared away Mousse followed him and at his request (very carefully worded as a request instead of an order) cleaned up smaller stuff that didn't take Ranma's power or control to do. Mousse didn't mind. He was still chewing over the fact that Ranma had held back at his father's order when they'd fought.

Two hours later Mousse was panting and Shampoo was flat on her back. Every boulder too large to fit into a dump bed had been reduced to base rock and the trucks and front end loaders were so far behind that they calling in more.

"Ok, that's that. I'm going to the hotel and taking a bath. Will you call ahead and see if they can get me a yukata? I don't want to track through the lobby in all this dirt. They don't need to have to clean up after it." At the boss' vigorous nod Ranma waved casually and turned to his friends. "I'm tired and I know you're worn out. I'll see you tomorrow. Come to the hotel and I'll buy you breakfast, fill you in on what ever Steven and Shuba find out and you can try to help me figure out a way to get the Elders to cooperate with us. Bye."

Ranma was met at the side door by the hotel manager with a yukata and a cup of tea. He changed in the vestibule and headed for the baths.

"I'm way too young for all this shit."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


	39. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Next morning Ranma was as good as his word. He met Mousse and Shampoo at the hotel restaurant and spent the next hour pumping them for every morsel of information that he thought would be useful in getting the Elders to cooperate with him.

"Shampoo not know anything else to tell. Elders all what you call hide bound and they not smart. Worse than Shampoo at worst she ever be. Not want to do any thing not traditional. Shampoo love Mousse very much now. But she not see him for long time. Not want Amazon man. Too easy walk on. Mousse try to be Amazon perfect man. Not . . . not essence of self. Tradition not all cracked up to be see Shampoo and Mousse now, tradition out window, love in door. Ok?"

Ranma grinned at Mousse, who looked like he'd been hit in the head with one of his hidden weapons. He was glad that was cleared up, Mousse deserved Shampoo's love, he'd waited for it long enough.

"Ok, thanks guys. I'm going to go see some of the people who've been reporting UFO's. I don't think as many of them are nut jobs as maybe the cops think. I want to hear their stories for myself."

Ranma got in his truck and headed farther north.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The more people he talked to, the more he was sure he was right. The Chinese were hiding something. He wasn't sure if it was the central government or the provincial but someone was definitely trying to dig a very deep hole.

Ranma popped his phone open "Speak to me."

"Ranma. Dorrie here. We've correlated all the data we could get our hands on and we're sure it's either a dragon or a very big wyvern. I'm sorry, but the Chinese aren't cooperating. The Central Government claims if something like that was happening the Provincial Government would tell them and the Provincial people aren't taking any calls, claiming press of business. Bullshit. They just don't want to admit that they've bitten off way more than they can chew and it's choking them to death. I just hope it isn't the death of more than them."

"I think we need to find a way for me to get into the province and check things out for myself. I just wish I knew how to do that without raising suspicions."

"Oh, Ranma when you get back I need you to sign originals but I'm faxing you enlistment papers. We got the higher ups to waive the age limit for you, Ryouga has refused and Kuno isn't making his mind up; keeps dithering. But all you have to do is sign fax me back and you're in. With the rank of Major. At least for now. We'll see how it works out, if it's not high enough, we'll promote you. Ok. Need anything more?"

"No, I'll sign this tonight and get it back to you. I think I'll make two copies at a shop and send you a set by messenger. That'll get originals into your hands sooner and I'd feel better about it. I'm gonna take the slow way back but I'm on my way in. I feel like I need to be there. But I'm not wearing myself out driving all night and most of another day. I couldn't make it back today if I flew."

"No, Ranma, just come in slow. If you want a side trip, go ahead and take it. If we need you, like I said, we'll for real fly you in. Chopper could get you here in two hours from most of Japan so enjoy your drive back. I feel, if the Chinese don't want to make a big deal out of it, we shouldn't put ourselves out too much until we're sure there is a reason too. They made their bed, let them lie in it."

"Yeah, but I don't want to lie in a bed of their making. It's not what they do but what their actions bring to the rest of the world I'm worries about."

"Know what you mean but we can't do anything without proof. Bye"

Ranma took a scenic side road instead of the main highway. He had a very bad feeling about this whole thing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma spent most of the day driving over a mountain road. The views were beautiful and he was forced to drive slow or risk running off the road. When he finally found a pull off, he decided to take it and stop for lunch. After eating, he decided to walk around a little and do some exercises, all the driving had made him stiff. He wasn't used to sitting so still for so long.

At the end of the path from the pull out he found a waterfall. It was magnificent and invited him to a meditation. So Ranma stripped down to a fundoshi and stood in the falls meditating.

Suddenly he felt hands on him. He was so startled that at first he didn't do anything, then he realized that he wasn't being attacked. Whoever it was hadn't hit him, in fact they were holding him quite gently against their chest.

"Here, young man. I've got you. What on earth were you thinking?"

Ranma shook the hands off him, careful not to hurt the man.

"I was meditating on patience. Why did you pull me out of the falls? I was . . ."

"You're cold as a frog. Standing in ice water in nothing but a fundoshi is for full masters, not boys. Come to the dojo and I'll get you warmed up. No arguing now. I'm also calling your parents to come get you."

Ranma decided he wasn't going to argue with the man, he meant well and Ranma could do with a cup of tea.

"Well I wouldn't turn down some tea. But what about my truck? It's at the head of the path at that pull off."

Ranma gathered up his clothing and fished his keys out of his pocket.

"If you'll let him, I'll send one of the senior students to get it for you. It's difficult to find the dojo from that pull off. He's an older student, you can trust him not to hot rod or wreck it."

"Ok. Here's the key. Watch it cause it's hot and it'll get away from you if you're too heavy footed."

Ranma watched the man as he started up the steep path, he almost picked the man up and carried him but decided that he didn't need the help and if he did that it would only be showing off.

"Come along now, you're starting to shiver and I don't want you catching a cold or something. I'll have one of the other students run ahead and tell them to get you some towels and hot tea. If you don't mind me asking . . . what were your parents thinking to let you run around up here alone?"

"My parents aren't around. My guardian knows that I'm capable of taking care of myself. Thanks for offering to call but I don't think Shiori Prison takes calls from strangers."

The Sensei looked a little startled, but didn't say anything, just guiding Ranma along the path to the dojo. At the dojo Ranma was enveloped in warm towels and handed a cup of hot tea with honey and lemon. He made a face as he took his tea 'virgin'.

"I know it's kind of nasty if you take plain tea, but the honey and lemon will help ward off the consequences of standing in a cold water fall. How could you be so . . ."

"Foolish? I'm a master of Anything Goes style. I've been practicing since I could walk. So . . . well, the last time I did that particular meditation I spent 12 hours in the falls."

"Twelve hours? How could you push yourself so hard? That's not reasonable even for a past master. You tenth dan?"

"Yeah. I guess. Pop really pushed me hard. I learned a lot, but it cost me. Could I have more of that tea? I don't like the taste but my body is craving it."

As the man poured more tea he introduced himself "I'm Honda-sensei, this is my dojo. Welcome." He bowed to Ranma, Ranma bowed back, respectfully keeping his eyes on the man.

"Pleased to meet you. Saotome Ranma Very nice dojo. Do you have many students?"

"Yes, I have eight full classes, from beginner to advanced, and enough senior students to be able to teach private classes. Would you like to look around?"

Ranma was delighted, he really wanted to look around and see how a normal dojo was run.

Honda-sensei took him into the dojo proper and to the dressing room where he tried to find Ranma a gi but all he could find was a pair of pants that were slightly too short.

"That's ok, I'm used to this. My shoulders are so broad in proportion to my height that it's hard to find stuff to fit me. This'll do just fine. I'm not too particular."

"I'm embarrassed. Most of my students have their own gear and we don't have many visitors who don't have their own gi."

Ranma shrugged, "That's ok, I'm kinda used to bein' ragged. Don't worry about it."

Honda-sensei looked at him from the corner of his eye, then decided to let it slide as just Ranma trying to be polite

"You didn't act like you were sure of your rank. Haven't you been tested?"

"Anything Goes don't really have ranks. Just whether you can survive Pop or not. So I'm not really sure of a rank, and with what I'm doing now, it don't really matter. I'm in the military, sort of." Ranma wasn't sure if he should claim he was enlisted or not.

He rubbed his hands together with a rasping sound. "Excuse me, could I see your hands? I've never actually heard a sound like that before."

Ranma obligingly held out his hands to the Sensei, who took them in a careful grasp.

"Kami save me. I've never seen such hands before. How did you get such heavy calluses?"

"Hours on a striking board, breaking, punching trees and using Bakusai Tenketsu. It all adds up." Ranma eyed his hands "Hump. I need to be more careful about using that cream Sunny gave me. I'm gettn' stiff again and they're starting to peel."

"I would like to talk to your Sensei . . . with my fist. I'm not usually a violent man, but this verges on abuse. You shouldn't be doing so much. You'll cripple yourself."

"I heal really fast and my girlfriend is a Healer. She uses her ki power on me. Feels really good and it'll keep me from being crippled. But . . . um . . . thanks for caring."

Ranma felt uncomfortable. How could this man care so much for a total stranger? He'd never seen anything like it before.

"You're welcome. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the classes. I've got a beginner class and an intermediate one going on right now. Would you like to look in on one of the beginner classes?"

Ranma followed the man down a highly polished hall way, heading for the sound of youthful kei's. He looked in the door just in time to see a Sensei correcting a student's form

Ranma winced as he watched the Sensei raise the staff he held. But instead of striking the offending wrist the Sensei just rested the tip of the staff on the boy's bent wrist and said "Straighten your wrist. If you strike like that, it'll break and dissipate the force of your strike."

The Sensei turned and saw Ranma and Honda-sensei standing in the door way.

"Hello. A new student? Would you like to sit in on the class for a while?"

"Yes, please. I'd like to watch how you teach. I'd have gotten ten strokes for a mistake like that."

"Ten . . . Excuse me? You mean your Sensei was allowed to strike you?" Ranma nodded at the Sensei and blinked at the look on his face. He looked angry and sad.

"I suppose you were pulled out of class at once. Too bad. I'd like to have a talk with your teacher and your parents."

"My father _was_ my teacher and my mother isn't around. I . . . I'm trying to find out some things. Like, how I should have been taught. What I should expect from 'normal' people. Stuff like that. So I'd like to sit in on the class for a while."

"Very good. Would you like to participate? Or just watch?"

Ranma opted for watching and just wandered around the room staying out of the way and watching as the Sensei corrected various students' form. Mostly with a gentle touch or a soft voiced instruction. Once or twice he actually rearranged the student's body by grasping the offending limb and moving it.

Ranma watched as one boy seemed to have trouble with the same strike over and over. He just didn't get it. He was obviously trying his best but some how he was missing something.

The Sensei turned to Ranma for help, astonishing to him as no one had ever asked his help so nicely before.

"Sure, I'll help. What do you want me to do?"

"Just watch the boy and see if you can figure out why he's having so much trouble."

As the boy went through the kata again, Ranma watched him closely. He seemed to be having trouble putting his left foot down

"Here, let me see your foot. What's the matter with it? You're not putting your weight on it square."

"I got a blister on the ball of my foot. It hurts. I'm trying, really I am."

"I know you're trying. Let me see your foot and I'll fix it for you."

Ranma healed the blister on the boy's foot. It seemed so simple to Ranma, you just ignored the pain and did it anyway. But the looks on the faces around him when he said that were astonishing. They all looked like they thought differently.

"That's not right, son. You don't hurt yourself. If something is wrong, it interferes with your ability to concentrate. That attitude only works for someone involved in life or death. In a match you don't let yourself push too far."

Ranma just rubbed the boy's foot and kept his thoughts to himself, this was something to think about. He had several things to consider and he was beginning to understand some things better.

"Excuse me, what did you do to my foot? It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Oh, I learned that from my girlfriend, Sunny. It's a healing technique. All you have to do is show the body how it's supposed to be and give it enough extra energy to be that way. Really works great."

Honda-sensei looked at Ranma and then lead him to the engawa. Getting them settled on zafus he began to carefully question Ranma about what was going on in his life.

Ranma watched him out of the corner of his eye and answered carefully, until the man finally pushed a little too hard.

"Look I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to find out. Why don't you just ask what you want to know and quit dancing around it?"

"All right. Exactly what are you doing? I hope you're not in some fight school. If your Sensei is abusing you and forcing you to fight, you need to go to the police and report him. I'll help you if you need it."

Ranma felt his jaw drop.

"Well, I . . . wow. I've never had anyone offer me anything like that except Steven. I . . . I'm..." Ranma stopped to gather his thoughts. "I'm not in a fight school. I work for Department 13. You've probably never heard of them but you saw the scars on my shoulder and back?" at Honda-sensei's nod he continued, trying to put it into words that the man would understand. "I'm a daemon hunter or whatever you want to call it. Things are bleeding over from other dimensions and some . . . no, most of them are undesirable, to say the least. I'm the one who deals with them when no one else can. Me and a few others. I'm not egotistical enough to think I'm irreplaceable, I'm not, but right now I . . . well, I'm more or less it. My boss--and friend I'm glad to say--has a hard time, he has to balance my needs and the needs of his higher ups and like everyone he's only human. He's made a few mistakes lately and I just needed to get away for a while. So that's why I'm out here wandering around like a lost lamb. I need to think things through a little and frankly I just needed to not be there for a while. Get a little perspective. See what a normal life is like. Sorta."

"Your parents let you do this? I'd think your father would. . . ."

"Could we just leave him out of this all together? He's one of the reasons I'm as fucked up as I am. I saw a normal father/son relationship just the other day and I woulda killed for something like that. My Pop was so busy making me the man among men my mother wanted that . . . well. Here's an example, and this happened a lot. I made a mistake in a kata. He beat me, then made me do the same section over again . . . for six hours. I know now that that's not normal. Everyone I tell something like that either thinks I'm a liar or just freaks out."

Honda-sensei looked like he was ready to explode. He calmed himself with a visible effort and told Ranma that he had never heard of such a bad example of parenting.

"This Steven, he takes care of you?"

"Yes and no. I'm an emancipated minor, which means I'm responsible for myself, just like an adult. I manage my own money and decide things for myself. I decide if I'm going to take a mission or not. I have a therapist and I asked a friend about my finances after I found out how much money I've been makin'; I had her set it up so I'll have something when I get old. The Compound provides me with everything I need. I never thought about it until she pointed out that I have too much money in checking and set up things so I have a better grip on money. I don't really understand it all but I know I can trust Nabiki-chan."

"This is incredible. You do all these things for yourself? Don't you have a mother?"

"Yeah, and she . . . I'm not even talking about her. The last time I saw her I was in the stockade, and she brought me an honor knife and left me. Can we change the subject entirely? I know you're just trying to help, but right now I'd rather not deal with that specific incident."

The expressions that chased each other across Honda's face were too quick and confused for Ranma to follow. He shook his head and then nodded to himself.

"I won't press you but I make this offer. I think you are a good boy in an almost impossible situation. If you find you need a sanctuary, come here and I'll do what I can for you. Also remember, if you don't stand up for yourself no one else will do it for you, and sometimes standing up for yourself means asking an outside party for help."

Ranma smiled at the man, he had figured out that the first thing his father had done was try to break him. He didn't break, but he was still trying to find his feet.

"My biggest problem is I spend a lot of my time confused. I don't know what I really want to do and I don't think it really matters. I have to do what I'm doing, who's gonna do it if I don't? There are too few of us for me to pull a childish stunt and say 'I don't wanna'. I gotta. I really don't mind. I think I'm hard wired to be a protector. It's a vocation, not a job. But there's a lot of other stuff I . . . well, I just...I'm not even sure how to explain it."

Honda laughed softly, this he could handle. "How old are you? . . . Seventeen? I think most of your problems are simply this. You_ are_ seventeen. I remember seventeen and you couldn't pay me to go through that again. Raging hormones and teen angst. No thanks. But it does get better. You outgrow it, you get life experience and you get older. Give yourself a chance. You're still young. Don't try to grow up so fast. Do you trust this Steven person or is it just that you're stuck with him?"

"I really feel I can trust Steven, he has a hard balancing act and he's doing the best he can. He's made a mistake recently but he's really trying to make up for it. I'll admit I didn't like the Stockade much but I shouldn't have punched him either. His biggest problem was caused by someone else. And the fact that the Board of Directors really didn't know how old I am messes things up really bad . . . that I'm so young. But I think you _are_ right, I'm just young. I got a lot of martial arts experience but not much life experience and a lot of that is what you might call . . . well, outrageously abnormal. I got a lot of stuff to think about and I got no time to do it in. The incursions are going to get closer together soon and there's a dragon in China, if I'm not wrong. And believe me, when it comes to something bad, I'm never wrong. Damn it.

"But that's enough of me feeling sorry for myself. I got better things to do than plan a pity party. Why don't you show me the rest of the dojo? I'm seriously thinking of starting a school at the compound; there are a lot of men who could be a bigger help if they were properly trained. See? I'm not just thrashing around, I'm really trying to figure things out, and frankly, you've been a real big help. Would you really turn down the chance to be seventeen again?"

Honda shuddered. "In a heartbeat. I remember and . . . 'Ooh, hell! No way!' comes to mind as a first response. Come this way and I'll show you the weapons hall. One more question if you don't mind? Just so I don't spend the next few years trying to figure it out. . ." Ranma smirked and nodded; he knew what the man was going to ask. "How did you do that healing thing?"

"I used my ki power to heal his blister. I'm nowhere as powerful as my girlfriend, she's practiced healing all her life, while I've practiced combat techniques. Like Mouku Takabisha and Hiryu Shoten Ha; yada, yada; on and on. That's what I really want to do. I want to pass on what I learned in a better way than I was taught. You don't have to . . . well, in this case, I'm preaching to the choir, ain't I? But ...well, show me the hall, I've bent your ear enough but you really helped me clarify some things. Thanks."

"Glad I could help. I know I'm minding your business with a vengeance, but this therapist of yours. How much experience does he have? How old is he? Does he have any combat experience?"

"Ryouga is my age or just a little older. He's got just about as much combat experience as I do. I know he's young but he really helped me through a bad time. But I've been thinking about that too and I think I need someone older to talk to. I'll talk to Ryu about finding someone older. He said since he's my friend he really shouldn't be my therapist, too. And he's been dropping subtle hints for the last month or so that I should find someone else; I think I'll see who he wants to hand me off to and see how that goes. I maybe do need an older person. See, just talking to you I'm figuring out stuff."

Ranma followed Honda into the weapons hall and felt a Frission du Morte. He grabbed the teacher by the gi and turned on one heel, spinning the man around with him. The patter of running feet echoed loudly in the hall and Ranma completed his turn just in time to dodge a sword held in the hand of a wide-eyed boy of about twelve. The boy was running with the sword in his hand, he hadn't seen Ranma or Honda-sensei because he was looking back over his shoulder.

Ranma watched as everything slowed down to a crawl, he had plenty of time to reach out, take the sword and stop the running boy before anything very bad happened. If he hadn't reacted like a warrior, Honda-sensei would now have a sword in the heart and a young boy would have ruined his life; all for a moments inattention and the foolish boyish desire to hold a sword.

The older boy, who was running after the younger, yelled, 'Stop! Look out!' but he was way too late. Ranma had already handled everything and hadn't noticed the blood running down his side yet.

"Here! What the hell! If I was . . ."

Ranma took a deep breath and let it out slowly then handed the sword off to Honda-sensei, clenched his fists, and struggled to stop shaking. That had been so close. If he'd been even a thousandth of a second slower–it was worth every thing he'd ever been through. That was something he'd never really thought about and it hit him with a sudden intensity. This was what it was about. He'd always known he was meant to save lives. It just hadn't touched him so directly before.

"Sensei. I'm going to let you handle this. If it was left up to me . . . I don't know what to do. What would Pop have done? I. . . ."

Sensei turned to the boy and shook his head, "I think you need to consider your dedication to the arts. You have been told time and time again to stay away from the sword. Why do you keep this up?"

The boy was looking at the sword then Sensei's face, back and forth, he gulped and muttered, "I want to be a kendo master. I can't be one unless I start learning swordsmanship." Ranma listened as the Sensei tried to explain to the boy but all the boy did was get smart.

"Uresei! Damn it. Listen to me. The first thing you need to learn is discipline. You aren't ever going to be good with anything unless you learn control. Of yourself first of all. That is the hardest lesson to learn. You can't just go off in any direction you want. That's one of the things I learned the earliest. You. Must. Have. Control. Now pay attention. I hate talking about stuff like this except to a select few. If I had pulled a stunt like that my father would have beaten me unconscious, waited for me to come to and hung me by my wrists from the rafters until I swore not to do it again; and then he'd have made me train twice as hard the next day. I learned early on that any mistake was harshly punished. Swords aren't toys. They are weapons. If you'd been a second faster or me a second slower, your Sensei would be dead. You understand me?"

The boy was looking at Ranma with wide eyes and a trembling lip. He nodded vigorously and started backing up

"Sorry . . . I'm sorry . . . I just wanted to hold it. It's . . . I'm . . . really, really sorry. I really won't do it again, I swear. And I'll go see Sensei."

The boy whirled and ran, followed by the older boy, who'd not said a word in all the time Ranma had been talking. He'd just nodded.

Suddenly Ranma felt the cut on his rib. "Ow! Shit, I'm cut." He pressed his hand to his side and looked at the blood. There wasn't much and his probing fingers found a very shallow cut about two inches long. It was bleeding sluggishly and tender. But he decided it wasn't much, he'd cut himself worse sliding on gravel. "Huh! Not bad, just a deep scratch. I'll . . ." Ranma found himself scooped up into the Sensei's arms.

"Call the hospital! Get help! Hurry!"

"Hey! Put me down. It's nothing. Really, come on, don't have a cow. Look, see, it's almost stopped bleeding already. All I need is a bandage and . . .well . . .clean gi . . .again. Damn, I'm so hard on clothes it's ridiculous."

Honda-sensei grabbed his panic with both hands and stuffed it down for later. He looked closely at Ranma and realized that his evaluation was right. He was barely touched and the bleeding had stopped. It was a very minor cut.

He had already attracted attention, so he told one of the goggling boys to get the first aid kit. When it arrived, he carefully cleaned the blood off Ranma with an antiseptic swab and dusted the cut with styptic powder. Ranma hissed softly between his teeth but didn't make another sound. After applying a bandage, the man called a senior student over and gave him quiet voiced instructions.

"Saotome-sama. I can only apologize. This is very embarrassing and shameful. I am responsible for this . . .disaster. I am so sorry you were hurt."

Ranma waved his hand, dismissing the whole incident without a blink.

"I"m fine. It's just a scratch. I'm just glad you weren't hurt. . . ." At the Sensei's grimace he laughed. "Look, I've been clawed by a Feral Imp and a wyvern." Ranma pointed to the scars which, he now realized, they had been too polite to ask about. "I heal really fast and if Sunny were here I'd be healed before you knew it."

"If you can heal Yahiko, why can't you heal yourself?"

"Don't know. I think it's possible, but I've never . . . hmmm. . . if. . . I . . . let me see. Like this and then . . . yeah . . ."

As Ranma mumbled to himself the Sensei watched as he picked the newly applied bandage off and ran his hand over the cut. It disappeared.

"Yah. But it doesn't feel as good as Sunny doing it and I don't think I could fight after healing a really bad wound. Takes too much energy."

Honda-Sensei just shook his head, he didn't believe this young man. He was so different from his students. In one way; so hesitant and in others, self-assured far beyond his years.

"If you'll come with me I'll help you get cleaned up. I think you could use a shower and some clean clothes."

The Sensei took Ranma to the showers and left him to see about getting him something clean to wear. After some consideration, he decided that Ranma had to be a kendo master, the way he'd handled the accident showed more experience with edged weapons than he wanted to think about.

He came back to the locker room with not only hakama and short kimono but Ranma's street clothes as well. He put the street clothes into a small basket and handed Ranma the kendo uniform.

"Here. Please put these on. I would like you to meet me in the main hall as soon as you get dressed."

Ranma took the uniform and stood looking after the man for a moment. (I wonder what he's up to.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

"Damn it, Steven You can't quit on us."

"Yes I can. I've been juggling my time for three years now and it's not working. I'm a fighter, not a bureaucrat. I don't like all this paperwork."

"Well, you'll need to train your replacement."

"No, I won't. She'll make me sleep on the couch for a month, but I'm turning all this crap over to Doris."

"She's not an administrator she's . . ."

"If you say just a secretary, I'll turn you over to yours. See how you like it."

"NO, NO. That's okay, if you're sure."

"She's been handling a lot of it already. I'm going back to what I know. I've made too many mistakes already. This is right for all of us and you know it."

"Yeah. But I hate to admit we made a mistake like that."

Well better to admit it now than for me to mess anything else up. I've made one bad mistake already. I just . . . I was built to fight, not to shuffle papers, so I tend to listen to the higher ups too much. They aren't close enough to the problems to understand exactly what is going on and I don't know how to reason with a bunch of bean counters. Let Doris take it over. She's good at getting that kind of thing done."

"If you're sure. Steven, just turn it all over to her and don't be too hard on yourself. You did the best you knew how and you didn't do too badly. After all, you found Saotome and convinced him to work for us. That was a real break for our side."

"Yeah but how good was it for him?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma walked to the main hall and stopped in the door way. All the students who were here were gathered in the hall; standing in ranks, youngest to oldest, back to front.

Ranma walked up to Honda-sensei and bowed, cupping his right hand around his left fist. The whole room saluted him in return.

"Please stand here."

Ranma stood where he was pointed, wondering what was going on.

The next thing that happened boggled Ranma's mind completely. The Sensei called the boy who'd caused all the trouble into the hall and stood him in front of all the students

"I am sorry. Please. Haven't we told you time and time again that you must not touch the swords?"

"Yes Sensei, you have."

"And haven't the other students warned you that they would tell a teacher each time you did so?"

"Yes, Sensei."

"Then I am sorry. I apologize. We have been doing a bad job with you."

"I don't understand."

"We haven't been able to instill the needed discipline in you. Please accept my apologies."

"Sensei?"

The teacher bowed to the boy; ducking his head and looking at his feet.

"Please leave now."

"Sir?"

"I'm sorry. Please leave the dojo."

Two of the older students gently guided the boy to the door and shut it behind him, effectively ejecting him form the dojo proper.

Ranma suddenly realized that the boy had been removed from the class.

"Sir? Was that really necessary?"

"Yes, Ranma. I don't know what else we could do for him. We've told him time and time again that he isn't ready for the practice of kendo. I've disciplined him as harshly as my heart would allow. I can't seem to get through to him. He's too stubborn. It's a shame, but I have failed with him and I'll bear the burden for a long time, but I can't allow him to disturb the dojo anymore.

"I don't believe in striking my students and, no matter what you were taught, it's not what should be done. If you do something bad enough to deserve to be hit, you don't belong in my dojo. And so he goes. Such a shame, too."

Ranma suddenly found that he had a catch in his throat.

"I see. Well, discipline is very important. If you don't have discipline, you don't have proper control and, especially if you are as powerful as I am, control is so important. That's one of the reasons I think Pop was so hard on me, he knew what I could turn into if I got out of hand. But he . . . I'm better than that. I don't want to hurt someone by accident. The other reason was that he...never mind that either."

"Please. Accept our apologies. We were remiss. That boy should have been removed from the school before an accident like this could happen."

Honda-sensei turned to the room and clapped his hands. Every man and boy in the room knelt in concourse, one hundred pairs of hands slapped the floor and one hundred people bowed to Ranma in apology.

Ranma bowed back, giving them the respect they deserved.

"Please. Rise. I accept the apology in the spirit it was given. Thank you very much. You have all given me much to think about, and your example is one that will shine in my heart forever."

All the students stood up and, bowing again, filed out leaving Ranma with the Sensei and the four senior students, who gathered in front of him, bowing again with their eyes on the floor.

"Hey! Enough already. You're not that responsible. He needs to be responsible for himself, too. You told him several times, and punished him too, so he knew he was doing wrong. I'm okay and so is everyone else. Give it up already."

"Thank you. We're sorry you got hurt. I'm glad it wasn't more serious."

Ranma smiled at the men and bowed, giving them the respect of keeping his eyes on them (There are only two reasons to turn your eyes away from someone when you bow in a dojo; either they are so good you have no hope of defending yourself or they are so bad that you don't need to.)

Ranma turned away and started for the dressing room. He was going to have to get on the road and find a place to spend the night, he'd messed around here way too long but they had definitely given him something to think about.

"Here. Why don't you keep the uniform? You're certainly entitled to it. I don't know why you don't wear proper Hakama instead of a simple gi."

"I think Pop didn't want me to know how much respect I was entitled to. He wanted to keep me under his thumb. I . . . Well. I'm not . . ." Ranma sighed. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say exactly. "My people skills leave a great deal to be desired. I don't have much tact and I hate getting into arguments. So I come off as either spineless or arrogant. I don't even know how to start out half the time. I just tend to blurt things out and then have to deal with the consequences."

"Again with the advice. Just remember it's worth exactly what you pay for it. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Say things as gently as you can and remember. You're human, and you get to make mistakes. Your tongue won't fall out if you apologize. You. Are. Worthy. Of. Respect. If you have to demand it of people, do so, but do it with respect of your own. Do you see what I mean?"

"Yeah, I think I do. Sometimes it's so hard. I'm too young to be doing what I do. I have to accept that and I think I've found way around some of the problems. Some I'll just have to put up with until they go away on their own. But I'm not lettin' some hidebound bureaucrat put my friends in danger because he won't see past my age. I just have to figure out how to do that. . . . Geez, here I stand yapping away. You've got a school to run and I need to get on the road."

Ranma waived to the Sensei as he drove away, the hakama and hakama shita folded carefully and packed into their bag, resting on the seat beside him.

Ranma turned the radio up as loud as he wanted it, rolled down the widows and headed for home, with several ideas churning around in his head. He had made some decisions and he just hoped that he had the nerve to make them stick.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

wow thanks to all my kind reviewers.

Wonderbee31,powellt, Jerry Unipeg, who has reviewed every single chapter, dogbertcarroll, shadowtime, gopu( ), nightowl123, Korina Stone, mysticalflame, Alex Ultra, motherCHOWgoddess( ), special thanks to OvenWookie, I'm sure I forgot someone but thanks to them, too

also a special thanks to Niana Kuonji for the beta. Huggles and cookies especially since she's working and writing her own really good fic. (go read her works, please)


	40. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Ranma arrived back at the Compound two days later. After a leisurely drive in which he solidified the ideas he'd had into what he hoped were easily implemented changes in his life.

He pulled the truck into the motor pool and tossed the keys to the same man who'd given them to him.

"Hey, hi, how are you? Here's that truck. It's so cool. I wish . . . in fact. Will you see if you can't get it assigned to me permanently? I'd really appreciate it. I hate coming here every time I need a vehicle."

"Sure Major. I'll see what I can do but I don't see any reason you can't keep it. Come back tonight and we'll have the oil changed and the whole thing detailed for you. Sign here, please."

Ranma obligingly signed where the man pointed. "Major? 'Scuze me?"

The man just laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, while you were gone there've been some changes. You're a real shit magnet, not only for yourself, but for others. There's been something of a shake up. You're wanted in the Commander's office. Go on; they won't bite you."

Ranma was doubtful of that, changes were, in his experience, not good things.

When he got to Steven's office he noticed that Doris wasn't there at her usual desk. When he entered Steven's office, the chair behind his desk was turned backwards to him.

"Hey Steven. I just got back and you're already giving me a hard time? What now?"

When the chair turned around Doris was sitting in it, not Steven.

"Well. Saotome. I'm glad to see you back again. How are you? I hope you had a nice vacation. But I know you have a shit load of questions so let me see if I can't answer most of them now. Steven resigned as Head of Department 13; bastard dumped it all on me. _He_ thinks he isn't doing the job he should. He made a mistake with you and you wound up in the stockade and it really hurt him, don't feel bad, he's much happier as he is now. _Just_ head of Georges. No, you are _not_ in trouble; yes, we _are_ looking into the dragon in China. Anything else . . . oh. You're enlisted as a Special Advisor with the rank of Major. Salary remains the same. I'd advise you to see about investing it a little better. Anything? No. Ok, Steven wants to see you in the new dojo. I think you'll get a nice surprise out of this. Don't look so worried."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma followed Dorie to the new dojo. While he walked he told her what he'd decided and when she just nodded and said "I'll set up a meeting with the board," he felt slightly let down; he'd expected some kind of argument, but Dorie wasn't Steven.

When she asked him if he had a kendo uniform, he proudly told her he had a new one.

"Why do I need a kendo uniform? I don't usually practice kendo."

"I know, Honey. But I think you should wear it just to humor Steven. He's really thrilled about this and he hasn't had much to enjoy since you went to the stockade. He still feels guilty about that."

"Why? I slugged him, twice. I should have had more discipline than to lose my temper like that. And slapping Downs really capped the climax and you know it. What do you think Pop would have done to me? Huh?"

"I shudder to think. I really do. Your Father is FUBAR on two feet. But all that mess in the stockade was something else."

"Yeah, you should have just beaten me and been done with it. I hate to think what the others went through while I was messing around there."

"Jesus. I don't believe you. Well, never mind. Go in there and change, then come to the main hall."

Ranma started through the door, but turned back.

"I hope this doesn't take too long. I want to see Sunny soon, real soon. I missed her bad, just calling on the phone didn't really cut it."

Dorie smirked at Ranma "Just go put on the uniform."

Ranma stood outside the door for a moment, straightened his shoulders, then slid the shoji back. He was greeted by Sunny, who gently took his arm and lead him to a gomden. She motioned for him to kneel and when he did she went to kneel beside Steven.

Ranma glanced around and was shocked to see who was there. Directly in front of him was Steven, flanked by Kuno on one side, and Ryouga on the other; Leela was on the outside next to Ryouga, and Sunny beside Kuno. Behind them his entire Secondary Team sat and behind them, people Ranma was sure he'd never seen in his life.

Steven cleared his throat to attract Ranma's attention.

Then everyone bowed to Ranma. There are three ways to bow. The first is to bow low enough to touch your forehead to the floor; that is reserved for the Emperor. The second is to bend your elbows half way; which is for someone you respect greatly. The third is to bend just your neck; which is for equals. (Of course there are shadings depending on how much you respect the person you are bowing to.)

Steven bowed, as to a respected equal, then went a little lower. Ranma nearly jumped out of his skin and everyone else bowed as to a very respected senior.

"Saotome Ranma."

"Hai."

"This is an auspicious occasion."

"Nani?"

"I am pleased, and proud, that your . . . ahem . . . parent has chosen me to make this presentation to you."

Ranma blinked in confusion; Steven was being way too formal for his comfort.

"My . . . which parent?"

"Your Mother has requested that I make this presentation to the new head of the Saotome household. As her proxy it gives me great honor and pleasure to present you with the Saotome family sword."

Steven reached down beside his thigh and drew out the sword, which he held out to Ranma on the palms of his hands.

Ranma reached out and took it from Steven, carefully placing his hands just inside of Steven's and, grasping the sword firmly, he bowed to Steven then placed the sword on the floor; bowed again and just sat for a moment looking at the sword.

"It's really the family sword. I don't believe it. Where did you get it? Not that I'm not grateful, I just . . ."

Steven smiled at Ranma. He was enjoying this immensely.

"Your honored mother has gone into seclusion. At Shiori Monastery. She said she is going to spend the rest of her life praying for your health and safety. She also said she wasn't going to pray for forgiveness as she doesn't feel you will give it to her."

Ranma humped and looked at the sword again.

"Well I'll be dammed."

Ranma picked up the sword, stood, and slid it through his obi; then he bowed to everyone and thanked them for attending the presentation.

"Ok . . . everyone . . . refreshments in the outer courtyard, enjoy."

The room cleared as people walked out the door; stopping to congratulate Ranma. He managed to stand until they were all gone, then he clutched Sunny's shoulder and staggered slightly

"Man I . . . need to sit."

"You are sitting, silly. Put your head between your knees and breathe."

Sunny hugged Ranma and patted him on the back.

"Holy Moses in a basket. I never in my life thought Mom would come across . . ." Ranma looked at the sword stuck through his obi and clutched the hilt. "I thought she'd hate me forever. I . . . I'm speechless."

At Ryouga's whoop, he snarled. "Don't get smart! Enjoy it while you can. Gomen for acting like a baka."

The party, and that was exactly what it was, lasted long into the afternoon. Ranma put the sword on a display stand, as was expected, but he spent a lot of the party looking at it himself. He couldn't believe Nodoka had actually given him the family sword, but there it was in his hand.

"Hey Kuno. How's Kodachi? You have any luck?"

Kuno turned to Ranma. He looked tired and gray.

"No, not much. I had to leave her in Switzerland. I don't think we're going to be able to help her. I just hope she gets well enough to be let out of high security."

"Man that's rough. I'm really sorry. I wish there was something I could do."

"There is. Continue to be my friend. Oh, and I was talking to Nabiki the other day. She wants you to get in touch with her soon. We're both worried about the state of your finances. They're really a mess. You should do something with your savings besides hoard them like a dragon does its gold."

"Aw man, don't even talk about dragons right now."

At Kuno's odd look, Ranma shrugged, "Nothing solid yet. When I'm sure, I'll let you have the scoop, promise."

Steven walked up behind Ranma just then and shuddered. "Ranma, tell me you're not saying what I think you're saying."

"I'm not saying anything yet, I need to get some more information and then I'll be ready to tell all. Hey, I never saw robes like Sunny and Mai are wearing. Where did they get them?"

"Not sure; Sunny said something about them being formal robes their tribe wears."

Ranma froze for a second then forgot about it as the entire Conroy-gumi came up and started congratulation him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma glowered at Doris and snarled, "You mean to tell me I don't have a place to rest my ass. I thought I asked--politely--for a house."

"You did and we are in the middle of building you one. The little house on the hillside slid into the ravine two days ago. We're working as fast as we can, but it won't be ready for another week. You'll just have to go back to your old room. No one else will stay with Charlie."

"Well, I m not puttn' up with his shit. What_ is _his problem anyway?"

"He's just a perfect control freak. Just ignore him."

"Can't."

"Well, what _are_ you going to do. You can't sleep in a tree."

"Bet?"

Ranma didn't actually sleep in a tree but pretty near. He went to his office and slept on the floor; until the Housing coordinator found him at midnight.

"Hey! You can't sleep on the floor. Here, you've got a room and that . . ."

"Will you go away and let me sleep? I can't live with Charlie. He drives me nuts. I have two choices. Sleep here or get into a fight with _that_ ass, and if I hit a 'normal' Steven will beat _my_ ass. Something I'd rather avoid, thank you."

"Steven wouldn't . . . Would he?"

"Yeah he would, and I'd deserve it. If I don't have anymore discipline than to get into a physical confrontation with some idiot, I need correction, and we can't afford to have me, or any other of the Georges, locked up for any length of time. So. . . . well, never mind that. I've got a speech to make and I'm practicing on you. Sorry."

The man gave Ranma a look that said he thought Ranma was a little off center. Then he gathered up his scattered thoughts.

"Look, I'm going to go with you and see that Charlie gets his shit straight. You have to have a proper billet. You can't sleep in your office damn it. Besides, it's only for a few days. See? I'm really sorry about the mix up. It's just . . ."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm so young. So get over it. And don't give me the excuse that you didn't recognize my name. I'm the only Saotome on the place. So that won't wash."

"Well, the sergeant that was in charge isn't anymore. He didn't know who you were, so he decided that he didn't need to follow a direct order and he gave you the room mate from hell. No one is really sure how that particular SNAFU came about, but there you are, and here we are. I'll just have a word with Charles Forester."

After the Housing Coordinator, who was a Lieutenant, finished dressing down the sergeant, Ranma threw his duffel on his bed and gave the man the evil eye.

"Look, we got started out on the wrong foot before. I don't like getting in someone's face so I let things get out of hand. So here it is . . . you will treat me with respect or I'll hand you your head on a plate. I don't want you in my face and I'll stay out of yours. I got a lot of stuff to do in the next few days, so I won't be here much. But when I am, I am going to type on the computer whenever I need to, if you need to sleep during the day, that's fine. I won't be here. But I'll be here after four and if Sunny shows up, you be nice to her. Understand? And I ain't puttin' up with a mess. I'm not a neat freak, but I'm not having your dirty socks and underwear all over the floor.

"And I'm not your little brother, slave, or servant. I don't polish boots, do laundry, or clean. Got it? Good."

Ranma didn't bother to dodge the punch Forester threw at him, he just caught the man's fist in his hand and squeezed. When Charlie fell to his knees, Ranma let go and started unpacking like nothing happened.

"Oh, by the way. My rank is Major. Think about it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Next morning Ranma woke up to his obnoxious roomie banging drawers and slamming doors. (If he thinks that's going to get on my nerves he don't know how.)

Ranma got up and started picking up the mess Charlie had left on the floor. It included a dirty t-shirt, boxers ditto, and a pair of boots.

"Hey Charlie! I picked up your mess one last time."

"Thanks, kid. Knew you. . . .hey!"

Ranma wadded the whole mess up and tossed it into a waste can, then he wadded the can up around the clothing, boots and all; he squashed it into a ball the sized of a soft ball and tossed the whole mess out the widow. Charlie's eyes got very big. Ranma had just wadded a pair of size nine military boots and a solid steel waste can into a very small ball.

"Next time I'm tempted to stuff you in there too. I'm going to be back by four. I don't want a mess when I do. Got that?"

Charlie nodded vigorously.

Ranma eyed him sourly.

"There's something else I think."

"Scuse me?"

"You salute me and say 'Yes, Sir' . . . or do you _want_ to make intimate acquaintance with a lot of potatoes?"'

"NO, Sir! Sorry, Sir!" Charlie stood at attention in nothing but boxers and socks, saluted and waited.

"Dismissed."

Ranma left to find breakfast and Sunny.

After eating a huge breakfast and realizing that most of the support personnel recognized him Ranma spent an hour with Sunny doing what young, in-love people do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma eyed his desk with disfavor. And called his secretary back.

"What the hell is all this?"

The woman huffed sourly, she wasn't pleased with her assignment. She'd replaced the original woman, who was on leave.

"I think they're called reports. You asked for them."

"No, I didn't. I asked for . . . look. . . I'm not messin' around here. I want every report there is on anything, unidentified flying anything, from the direction of China and I want it . . ."

"Right. On your desk now. There they are."

The Corporal pointed to the stack of files she'd dumped on Ranma's desk.

"Oooookaaaay? And you are giving me shit because?"

"I've been the personal secretary of a high-powered executive and a general. Now they want me to nursemaid a kid."

"Not necessary at all. You are relieved of your duties as of now. I got enough problems without puttin' up with some pissed off bitch with an attitude, I got enough of my own thank you."

Ranma walked into the secretarial pool and pointed.

"You. You think you can handle a George? Don't nod. I can't hear your head rattle."

The Gunnie Ranma and pointed to was a well known disciplinary problem, but Ranma had heard from several of his friends that the main problem was she had her ways of doing things and her bosses tended to get in her way too much.

"Yes, Sir. I can handle it."

"Ok. Come with me." Ranma started walking "I don't care about how you do stuff. I'm too young and more important, too busy, to worry about it. All I care about are results. Get the job done. And fast. I won't have time to be nice. I'm no diplomat, if I hurt your feelings let me know, I'll probably apologize, but cry on your own time, not mine. There."

Ranma pointed to her desk, which had not one thing on it, not a scrap of paper even.

"What do you want me to do first? Sir."

"Get me every . . . well, the search should be in the computer. If it isn't, I'll transfer the parameters to you. And I want my info in searchable data bases; if you bring me a bunch of files to wade through, I'll probably get rude."

"Sir!" The woman saluted sharply; sat down and started down loading Ranma's stored search parameters. Shuddering slightly when she realized what he was looking for.

Three hours later Ranma looked up from his monitor. "Hey, Ryu. I was meaning to talk to you." Ryouga sat down opposite Ranma in the guest chair, crossed his legs and started hemming and hawing. "Look Ryu. I thought we were friends. If you got something to say, spit it out. I'm busy here and I don't have time to cater to this. I'm sorry but all hell is breaking loose and I don't have the time."

Ryouga sighed, it was just like Ranma to develop an attitude when he had something unpleasant to say. But he gathered up his courage and forged ahead.

"Ranma, you need to get yourself a new therapist. I specialize in post traumatic intervention, not long term therapy. I can't treat you anymore. You're well on your way to a full recovery from the trauma of slavery. And I see real improvement in your overall attitude. You're getting back on your feet."

"Well, thank goodness for small favors. I was getting ready to tell you the same thing myself. I understand that you weren't supposed to treat me at all and I really appreciate you doing it. But you're right, I'm getting to the point where I don't need intervention anymore. I need support. And I'd like someone older. Father figure; all that."

Ryouga nearly clapped his hands in joy. Ranma was getting to the point where he didn't need him, which made him happy. (That being a therapist's point--getting a patient to the point where they are no longer needed.)

"Sure. I already got a guy in mind. Older, settled, combat experience, tough. You'll like him. After this mess in China is over, I'll introduce you."

"Great. Now if I could just get this mess into some kind of shape. Look, I'm setting up a manual, for lack of a better term. When I get done with it, it'll be a set of rules for managing Georges. We're being taken advantage of. They don't tell us anything. We're just reacting instead of acting; we get into trouble and . . . well, I'll let you read it. If you have any suggestions, get them to me in the next twenty four hours. Tell Kuno will you?"

"Ok. . .By the way, I appreciate you giving Bricker a chance. She's really good, just a little opinionated. Advice unsolicited is worth . . ."

"A lot more than you think. I like her; but go ahead."

"Give her her head and let her run. You don't have the skills to tell her exactly how to do a job and she'll reward you with a loyalty that outpaces the palace guard of old."

"Her name's Bricker? I wasn't sure. I just hear things as they pointed her out to me as 'avoid'. Well I like her."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three days later Ranma was in love for the second time. "Gunny-love. Tell me you got my copies. And that list."

"Of course I did and don't call me Love. It's Bricker. I don't do the Lolita thing."

"Huh? Oh. Well, then Sunny don't have a reason to be jealous. Where's Steven? I tried to see him but the ass in the Personnel office said it was need to know. Well, I need to know-- find out."

Ranma went into his office and plopped down in the chair, put his feet up on the desk and long armed his key board. His searches were coming up with data he didn't like and he was getting worried. The Chinese still weren't cooperating, he couldn't find Steven and he was meeting with the Board of Directors for a show down of monumental proportions and his roomie was as obnoxious as he could be.

"Sir."

"Bricker. Tell me you've got good news. Please."

"I found Steven. He's in China trying to find out what the hell is going on. The Elders aren't co-operating at all. He's trying to get the Amazonian Council to intervene. The Village Elders answer to them but it's slow going. "

"Damnit. Damnit." Ranma wanted to slam something. "I'm so tired of this shit. If I wanted red tape I'd 've been a bean counter. Son of a bitchin' mother fucker."

"Sir. I'll see what I can do about getting you more information. I think you should work on your presentation."

"Yeah and when am I goin' to get a chance to present. You haven't been able to get me an appointment with even half the board. I'd like to know why we have a board in the first place."

"Because we're multinational. We have a man from each service represented by more than six percent of our total enlistment. To make sure that all the nationalities are protected."

"Oh. Well it's causing more trouble than it's worth."

"Yes, and when you point that out I'm sure it will actually help. These men are interested in the well being of all the men in the Department. I've got connections and they say that when the Board was informed that one of the punishments you could have been given was a flogging, they nearly went spastic."

Ranma eyed the Gunnie and smiled. "Thanks, that really helps me out a lot. Gunnie, you're beautiful."

The Gunnnie grunted and headed for her desk, intending to get Ranma his meeting as soon as possible. They needed to get all this cleared up before things in China got too hot. She managed to get it organized for the following afternoon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hello, I'm Saotome Ranma and before you get started . . . Yes, I'm all of seventeen. Yes, I'm the best you've got; and yes, I'm tired of puttin' up with your shit. I've tried to do it your way and I even understand why you do some of the things you do but here it is in a nut shell.

"You can't handle me. No way, no how, not ever. I handle myself and I do a fair job of it. I haven't killed anyone by accident yet and I'm in good control of my temper, most of the time.

"Have any of you read the file I sent to you? Not one of you. Ok, I'm going to get a soda and that'll take just long enough for you to read."

Ranma looked over the nine men and shook his head, he just hoped this worked. Too many Captains and not enough privates made for no army.

"I mean business. You need me. I don't need you. All you do is give me grief, pain, and aggravation. I can just as easy set up a dojo and teach. You can't touch me, or Ryouga or Kuno." At one mans autocratic smirk, "Oh, please. Ryouga and I can live off the land for the rest of our lives easily. Kuno has old money. Real old. I think he's related to the emperor. Read--I'll be back."

Ranma drank soda and worried. He didn't want to leave the Compound but he would. He wasn't a child to be told to sit in a corner and be quiet until he was called. He was a martial artist, he was putting his life on the line for no other reason than he was needed. And he was going to be in charge or he was going to be gone.

"Ok, gentlemen. You've read the prospectus. I don't need an argument. If you want to know why something is in the rule book: ask. If you want to argue with me? Don't bother. I am, however, open to suggestion."

Of the nine men there; four got up and started out the door. Each one wished Ranma good luck, shook his hand and left. Ranma just waited for an explanation.

One man stood up, "Of the nine of us, we are the representatives with the most men in the Department. The Board is unwieldy. You've pointed that out quite well. So we cut the 'dead wood'; not that those men are not competent, they are, they just have the fewest men in the command and a lot more on the table. So now we ask questions."

"Shoot! Just don't miss."

"Ok, we understand that you want a more active part in planning missions and seem to think that there is some way for us to force countries to let us barge in and take over things at will."

Another man spoke up. "That's not possible. Each country has territorial autonomy. That means that we can't just wander in and shoot up everything."

"Hum. I didn't think of that. But that still leaves us in the same mess. If a country don't cooperate, we're left cleaning up after something big and nasty."

"We can refuse to do anything when they do call, but then things get completely out of hand and we have an even bigger mess to deal with."

"Well, I think they ought to get punished somehow. Make them pay for the . . . extermination? We gotta call it something elegant so they respect us. I'm not an Orkin man."

"No, you certainly are not. I see why you are considered the best of the New Georges. You thought up that name, didn't you. I was always fond of the term exterminator, but you're right, it sounds too much like a common bug swatter."

"Yeah." Ranma looked around, he didn't understand why Steven had such a hard time with them. They seemed reasonable enough, he was sure there would be some sticking points but he thought if he fought hard enough and had his arguments well-thought out he'd come out mostly successfully. "Why did Steven have such a hard time with you guys? Ya all seem fairly reasonable so far."

"Well, we'd tell Steven something and he'd just 'yes sir' at us and go do it. He never argued with us or gave us good reasons for doing something different."

"Hmmm. Well, Steven was raised a slave and never really learned how to argue effectively, he was brought up to obey unquestioningly. You'll find I'm a contentious little bastard and the first word out of my mouth is invariably 'why.' "

"Steven was . . .that's impossible. That's out . . ."

"Aww shaddup. You idiots never read a report in your lives, do ya? Ya gotta have a synopsis. Pissy, lazy . . . ya otta be shamed a' yurselves. Shit."

Ranma stopped talking and took a deep breath. These men were busy and a synopsis made sense unless it was cleaned up too much.

"I'm sorry." The General who seemed to have been voted spokesman pinched the bridge of his nose. "None of us understood a word you just said. My Japanese is good but that was beyond my skills."

"That's because when I get upset I talk like a rice farmer. Hick from the sticks. Sorry. There's a lot you don't know that you should. I . . . Steven was born a slave and was a gladiator for the first part of his life. He's a good fighter but not so good at paper work, and prioritizing orders really gave him hell. He tried to make everybody happy and follow all orders. I'm astonished he didn't have a stroke or nervous breakdown."

"I see. He's quit and turned it all over to Doris. I hope it works out better. We really can't afford to lose even one of you. And that leads to one thing that is really bothering me. In this rule book there are some harsh punishments. I don't understand. How . . . I'm . . ."

Ranma held up his hand, he knew exactly what was bothering the man.

"The book was written in the late forties. Here in Japan we have a different view of corporal punishment. It's not that unusual. Most schools have provisions for it and I personally don't see a problem. As long as it's kept for severe infractions of rules and is overseen properly."

"It's not humane. It's . . . "

Ranma just looked at the man for a moment, then said. "Singapore. You can get a cane across your butt for spitting gum on the street. My other argument is closer to home. While I spent 25 miserable days in the stockade there were 37 incursions; twenty were handled by Grunts, but the other seventeen were handled by Steven, Ryoga, and Kuno. That's five apiece, with a couple of extras thrown in for good measure. And I'm just sitting on my butt showin' off for the common horde and worryin' myself sick. I'd rather take a beatin', it's over quicker and I'm back in action. We can't afford for a George to be out of action for that long. Besides . . . well, never mind. Ask your next question."

"How can you just stand there and say you'd rather be whipped. It's . . . You're too young to understand what you're saying."

Ranma had been expecting this and just slipped his shirt over his shoulders and showed them that he did know what he was talking about.

"If one of you pukes, I'm smackin' ya. I don't understand how strong men like you can throw a fit and a bunch of Americans hardly blinked."

"Those are some scars . . . I think it's because we have a good idea of how painful the wounds were. Those Americans were either ignorant or had really strong stomachs."

"Ok, back to the subject at hand. I don't like pain. It's the body's way of tellin' you not to do something. When I said beat, I meant exactly that, not whip, that's something else entirely. A couple of swats across the butt never killed anyone. They don't call it the seat of learning for nothing. But I think you've been reading the old rule book. I wrote a new one. It's a lot more lenient and there are only a few things that I think are worthy of corporal punishment. Striking a 'normal' is high on the list, insubordination isn't there at all. Physical assaults on others are the only offenses that I think need severe punishment. We all lose our tempers from time to time and corporal punishment reminds us that we can cause more pain in a second than we intended."

Ranma watched as each man shuffled through the files he'd provided and each one seemed to be thinking but as he watched he got the feeling that things weren't going as well as he wanted.

"Ok, now we come to the sticking point. You_ are_ only seventeen. I don't feel that we can put a seventeen-year-old in a position of command. You need to follow orders and let those older and wiser than you make the decisions. You understand that you aren't going to be let to run over adults who know more than you do. Don't you?"

Ranma didn't even see the looks of horror on the faces of the rest of the men. He calmly, quietly, flipped out completely.

"I don't think_ you_ understand. I risk my life every time I go out. Those scars on my shoulder and back weren't gotten playing patty cake. If you push me, I'm gone. All I have to do is call Social Services and Children's Protective Agency and I've got a nice new home with people who will probably fall all over me. Think about it. I don't need you, but you need me, and don't you forget it. I want to be reasonable, but you don't see welcome tattooed on me, do you? I'll fight for my rights and I got 'em. I got more rights than you want me to think I do. I may be only seventeen but you saw me as man enough to spend ninety days in a stockade full of grown men, in full transport chains whenever I was out of my cell. So you can't have it both ways, either I'm a full-fledged member of the team or I'm out. Either or gentlemen."

"Wait, wait. I remember sanctioning a ninety-day sentence, but that was for a grown man . . . struck his superior officer and a visiting agent from the US. Not some . . ."

"Don't you dare say it. The only ones who get away with calling me kid are my secondary team and Steven. To you, I'm Saotome. Watch it."

Several of the men were flipping through the report and suddenly the room was full of noise as three of the five started shouting at the other two and each other.

Ranma brought his hand down on the table so hard it sagged.

"Shut the fucking hell up, fucking idiots. Baka! Shimatta! Baka yamero yo, you made a mistake and daisho! Inochi wa! Masaka I'm puttin' up with you all out of control like a bunch of chickens. Nan dai yo egg in your fuckin beer?"

Ranma's mix of Japanese and English, plus his accent, made him almost incomprehensible but the force with which he brought his fist down on the table made up for it.

Breathing hard he waited for the men to either shut up or, at least, get it together.

"I'm not messin' around with you._ I_ enlisted, but _you_ gave me the waiver. So I get the authority and respect I need to do the job or I go back to high school and open a dojo when I grow up. . . assholes."

"We just realized exactly what we have done. It's a blow. We were deceived by Downs. And you. . . you're only seventeen and . . . damn it. It seems that you have more sense at your age than we do"

"Yeah, well, you've got a good excuse, I guess." Ranma managed to get his temper under control before he did more than crack a table.

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"Answer me a question. What is a camel?"

"I don't understand, what . . . it's a Bactrian."

"I'm not sure about that; but it's a horse designed by committee."

At the stricken expressions around the table, Ranma couldn't do anything but let his naturally good nature take over, he burst out laughing and nearly fell over.

After more discussion that, thankfully, went much better than the first attempt, it was decided that all the Georges would be designated Special Agents and would be in charge of their secondary teams and the Coordinators would be used to keep things on line. Every effort would be made to get countries at risk to agree to allow teams in their borders without going through customs and that each of the younger Georges would be given rank equivalent to their responsibilities.

"Yeah, that's all well and good but I'm enlisted already. What about that? You guys made me a major. Make up your minds, either I'm a agent or a major, ya can't have it both ways. Can you?"

"Yes, we can. You're a special agent with the rank of Major. Get over it, Saotome, you're a smart man, use all the tools we give you."

"Ok, but I'm also a tired man. If there are no other items on the table I'll call a recess, or shall I close the meeting?"

"I think we should close the meeting. I don't see any other business at present. All in favor?"

All said Aye and the meeting closed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

Tokyo university extension admissions office:

"Look here, this one is taking a lot of weird classes; Chartography, Myths and Legends, Finance 101, Sume-e. . . not a hard science in the lot. I'd better . . ."

"Leave well enough alone. That's Saotome. He's a George and--I hear-- a real bear when he wants to be."

"I don't care he can't. . ."

"Yeah? If he wants to take advanced basket weaving and pseudo religions of Mesopotamia, I wouldn't mess with it. Not safe."

"Sure."

"Yeah, I hear his glare could strip paint."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Gunnie, you find out anything more for me?"

"Yeah, I did, and you aren't going to be happy. Major Saotome, there is surely a dragon in China. We've got visual conformation by a reliable source. Damn it."

"And the reliable source is . . . "

"Steven. He's done an infiltration. No one knows he's there. He slipped in under their radar and avoided the Council of Elders. He'll be back tomorrow."

Ranma sighed, he'd been afraid of this but with Steven's visual conformation he could start making some kind of plan. He knew he'd need Ryouga and Kuno and who was going to be in command was anyone's guess. Maybe they would have to draw straws.

"I'm going to go to my room and get cleaned up. I have a date. While you're causing trouble see how they're coming on my house. Put as much pressure as you can on someone. Please. I'm gonna kill that ass yet."

Gunnie Bricker smirked at Ranma, she'd been party to several practical jokes on bad room mates and had given Ranma some pointers.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Boss."

Ranma got an arrested look in his eyes, then smirked at the Gunnie.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, helllloooooo beautiful!"

Ranma looked over his shoulder and smirked. He'd washed his hair and was kneeling in the middle of his bed combing it out. His hentai roommate was standing in the door with his mouth open in shock.

Ranma, or rather Ranko, slid off the bed, walked to Charlie and smiled seductively, leaned over and smelled him. Wrinkling her nose, she sniffed softly then she slowly licked his face from chin to cheekbone.

"See what you miss when you piss off your room mate? Stinky." Ranko sauntered out the door, pig tail and ass swaying.

Ryouga, Kuno and Sunny, watching from the tree outside the window, nearly fell out of said tree as they all laughed their asses off.

"That'll fix him."

"Ranma is soo nasty."

"Well it_ was_ funny as hell."

Sunny smirked. "He may be a stubborn ass at times, but you've got to admit he can be really sadistic when he wants to."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma changed on the way down the hall. Several men did double and triple takes, wondering if they were going crazy.

He wandered around the compound just taking it easy and trying to let the information he'd gathered digest for a while, he often found that instead of forcing things, if he just thought about something else, his answer would just kind of present itself.

Ranma saw a bunch of men just lounging around underneath a tree and he heard the name Charlie. So he sat down and started listening in

"I feel sorry for the poor schmuck that's rooming with him now. That idiot will run him ragged, he's the biggest slob I ever saw."

"Yeah. He left his boxers in my cooler."

Ranma shook his head (Eewew. He is a slob!)

"Hey, you're Saotome the George. I saw about you in orientation. Too bad all they did was tell everyone to watch out for you."

Ranma grinned at the man "I'm probably twice as bad as they let on."

"Yeah right, you're too young to be a bad ass."

Ranma gave the man his best puppy-dog eyes look and whined, "I'm hurt, really hurt. Bad ass. Oh my"

As all the men around started laughing, Ranma straightened up, remarking "I'm only a bad ass when I need to be. I'd rather get along and save the fighting for the incursions. Just don't fuck with me and everything will be all right."

"Ok. I'm the same way you are. I'm a SEAL." Someone in the back of the crowd made ork, ork, noises. "Yeah, yeah, right. And you swim like a rock; pipe down. Anyway, I'd rather not fight with a comrade. I heard you had some trouble like that around here. But I've never seen it."

"Yeah, because the only lucky bastard they want to fight with is a George."

"Huh? Well that's just stupid. I like my head where it is. I don't need it shoved up my ass. You've got a rep as a good joe, but one that'll take only so much, then all hell breaks loose. Sounds like a plan to me."

"Thanks. It seems to be working. What's that thing?"

Ranma pointed to the cylinder the man had been idly toying with.

"This is a Super Compression Air Tank. SCAT's are nice. Here, take a closer look."

Ranma took the thing and examined it. It was just a silvery cylinder about five inches long and maybe two around with a mouth piece in the middle of it.

"What's it for?"

"It's an air tank. Like a SCUBA unit only really small. Only holds about twenty minutes air and you can't go very deep, but it's good for infiltration and such. Be kinda careful with it though. A real sharp knock on a sharp edge and it'll take off like a rocket."

Ranma handed the SCAT back to the man, remarking that it was a handy looking thing, if you were a SEAL.

"Thanks for the info. Never know what might come in handy sometime."

He turned just in time to catch a flying body. Sunny had seen him and, forgetting to be careful, just jumped at him with a joyous squeal.

"Ranma Ranma Ranma! I'm so glad did you put up your sword I've been looking for you since we saw you through the window you jerk that was mean but so funny and Ryouya nearly fell out of the tree and the only reason he didn't was that Kuno grabbed him and I wish you wouldn't mmmmmmm!"

Ranma kissed Sunny to shut her up for two seconds, he kissed her until she ran out of breath, then pulled away to look at her as she panted, trying to get her wind back.

"Sunny. I'm so sorry I didn't have more time for you yesterday, that was a better 'hello' I hope. I put my sword in my office on a stand. Charlie is really gettin' on my nerves but I think that last stunt will at least keep him away from me. And what have you heard from Shuba, I know you've been nagging at him to tell you what Steven found out."

Ranma bent to kiss Sunny again but cat calls and shouts of 'get a room' 'come up for air' and 'Yay x-rated' brought them back to their surroundings.

"Animals. Can't a guy kiss his girl without you hentai goin' nuts? Come on Sunny, let's get outa here and find some privacy"

Ranma mock glared around then took Sunny's hand and walked off; both teens laughing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

FUBAR Fucked up beyond all recognition/repair

SNAFU Situation normal--all fucked up.


	41. Chapter 42

Ranma 42

Starting with these chapter things are going to be moving really fast. I'm not going to try to break it up into days but the time frame is three to four days total. So keep up, 'K? :-)

Warning: in this Chapter Ranma and Sunny get married, yup, that's right and they do what any two married seventeen-year-olds would do. It's not graphic, I have no skill at lemons but it's apparent what they are doing, more limey-citrius. If you don't like, don't read. If you don't want to read; just read to the S then scroll down to the next S and read on.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Where the hell is Saotome."

"Don't bother him. He's with Yao and I think they want some privacy."

Sunny and Ranma however, weren't doing what everyone thought they would be doing. Ranma was filling Sunny in on everything he'd been doing, in detail.

"Well, I'm glad Mu Tzu got Xian Po to act like a woman instead of a girl. She's a nice person when she isn't obsessing about that fiancee of hers. I don't know his name, Mom wouldn't tell me. She said he'd started a new life and didn't need the grief of every one of us trying to get revenge for Xian Po almost gettin' exiled. I'd like to give her a piece of my mind as she shouldn't have tried to force someone who was unwilling but . . . "

Ranma meanwhile was sitting with his jaw in his lap. He'd never told Sunny Shampoos name and hadn't mentioned that she'd been engaged to him, he'd just told her that they were friends. Now –

"And I don't care if she is some sort of cousin of mine. We're from different villages. I remember going to her wedding. But . . ."

"Whoa, Whoa. Time out, take a breath. I need to . . . Sunny are you telling me that Shampoo is a cousin of yours?"

"Yes, you'd have to ask Mom exactly how we're related. But we're close enough that I could take on her responsibilities when she went to Japan. Of course, one of her village elders did it, but then informed me of it. Real mess . . . oh, damnit. Ranma you better not tell me that you . . ."

Ranma ducked his head. This was a real mess. His past was getting ready to mess up his future again.

"Well. Hum . . . "

Ranma grabbed Sunny's hand. He pressed it to his lips. "Sunny, please don't be mad at me. I'm sorry I never . . . but I didn't know . . . you never told me you were . . ."

Sunny just shushed him absently, barely even noticing his distress. "Shush, koibito. I'm thinking . . . " After a few moments she turned to him and realized that he was shaking. "Stop that. I'm not mad at you. If I should be mad at anyone, I should be mad at myself . . . Ranma you need to get into Joketsu Village, right. Well, it isn't going to be easy. You know that they are the Guardians of Jushinko, right? And they're the most traditional village of the five Amazonian villages?"

Ranma nodded, he knew all this and it was a problem. He watched Sunny as thoughts chased each other across her face. What was she up to?

"Ranma as Xian Po's cousin and the one appointed to take her responsibilities, I think we have a way into the village and even a way into the Elders circle. I need to talk to Mom. Come on."

After consulting with Ma Yao and throwing a little fit when she got an argument, Sunny came out of the office and sat down next to Ranma.

"Bishi, we can do this. I know a way to get you into the village and give you enough leverage to make them do what you what them to do."

Ranma clutched Sunny's hands, "Sunny, you're a life saver and I mean that literally. What do . . . "

"Don't get too excited just yet." Sunny told him exactly what he had to do and Ranma just gaped at her for a second.

"You're sure that's the _only_ way? Absolutely?" At Sunny's nod he bit his lip "You_ want_ to do this? I won't put you on the spot like this unless you really want to do this."

"Ranma I wouldn't have even _mentioned_ it if I wasn't completely aware of what I was getting into and willing to go _all_ the way."

Ranma gathered up Dr. Tofu, Ryouga, Leela, Kuno, Steven, Doris, Ma and half a dozen other people.

"In front of these witnesses I, Saotome Ranma, make my submission."

Ranma dropped to one knee in front of Sunny, bowed his head and raised his crossed wrists to her. She reached out and touched them gently with her finger tips

"I accept this submission."

The up roar was so loud that it brought MP's running thinking there was an incipient riot.

"Damnit. Ranma you . . ."

"He's lost his mind."

"Ranma, you can't. "

Ranma took a deep breath and shouted them all down. When they were finally quiet, he said, "If anyone can think of a better way to get all of us into the village in the next week, I'd like to hear it. I'm ok with this, but I hate to put Sunny on the spot like this. Anyone? . . . No? Didn't think so. Dorrie, get us a chopper to take us to Sun Yao's village. ASAP."

Then he went to Sunny and knelt at her feet, waiting patiently for her to tell him what to do next.

"Ranma. Get up. I don't want you to do that. It's not necessary until we get home."

"I might as well start now. I don't want to forget when we get there."

Sunny reached out and hauled Ranma to his feet. She gave him a little shake.

"When have you ever forgotten anything important?"

"Never that I remember, but there's always a first time and this isn't the time to take chances on my memory. Practice makes perfect. Just consider it Anything Goes Amazon Husband technique." Ranma smirked at Sunny, raising one eyebrow.

Sunny sighed heavily. "I hate it when you're right."

"Get used to it. I'm usually right, aren't I"

"Shut up . . . Ranma I know you're right but that doesn't mean I have to like it, does it? . . . .Ranma? . . . .Damnit."

"Permission to speak, Betrothed."

"NO. You'll just say something else I already know and don't want to hear."

Sunny stomped off with Ranma trailing three steps behind, leaving a trail of snickers floating in the air.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vignette

What just happened?

They got engaged amazon style.

Oh . . . uh . . . I heard that they have some really weird customs.

Yes they do and Saotome better know what he's doing. She's related to his other fiancee Xian Po.

So?

That means that the only kind of marriage they can have is . . . well, he's practically her slave. He can't know what he's in for. He submitted to her. That means that he can't even talk if she doesn't let him. He has to ask for permission to do almost anything.

Why would he do that? I mean he . . . wait, wait, I got it. If he's married to Yao Sun that means that he's . . . oh, that little devil. I just hope they accept him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ranma waited patiently as Sunny gathered her things together. Then they went to his room to get his things. He grinned evilly at Sunny, he still hadn't said a word and wouldn't until she gave him permission. He wasn't taking any chances of forgetting. In for a penny in for a pound. Sunny's so gonna hate this.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, Saotome. I heard you just got engaged. Congrats. This the lucky girl? . . look, I know we don't get along, but that's no reason to give me the silent treatment."

Ranma eyed Sunny raising his eye brow. "Permission, please?"

"You may speak. But get on with your packing."

"Hai, Koishii. I'm taking everything. What I don't need, I'll put in storage, if that's all right with you."

"Fine, get packing."

"Hey, you can't order him around like that." Charlie reached out to grab Sunny and found out that Ranma may have submitted to Sunny but he sure as hell hadn't submitted to anyone else.

"Get your dirty hands off her--now." Ranma bent Charlie's wrist back and twitched his fingers, which effectively dumped the man on his butt. "She's my mistress and she can do anything she wants to. Get over it."

"Ranma, just pack, please. I don't know how you managed to get such a nasty man for a roomie, just look at the mess." Sunny turned to Charlie, "You're a pig and that's insulting pigs. Oh and be glad that Ranma got in my way, otherwise I'd be wearing your testicles for earrings."

Ranma blinked, then realized that Sunny was an Amazon, so she surely had some training. He wondered if she'd purposely hid it or just never thought to make a big deal.

"Oh, Ranma, I never hid anything from you, but Mom insisted after we got kidnaped, that I take up the traditional training. I don't care for it, but there you are."

Charlie looked from one to the other. He didn't know how Sunny knew what Ranma wanted to know, she just had.

"I didn't think you would hide things from me. You're your own person and I don't need to know every thing you do and think. I . . ." Ranma grinned at Sunny. "I just wish you'd let me train you. I'll do a better job than anyone else would. And you don't have to worry that I'll take it easy on you. I love you too much to let you down like that. Better a bruise from me than a stab from an enemy."

"Hey, you can't just ignore me like this."

Sunny looked at Charlie and smirked. "He didn't ask permission to speak to you. You want to ask him something you'll have to go through me. He really won't answer you unless I give him permission and I don't think you're worthy of his time. Ranma you are forbidden to speak to him."

Ranma bowed his head and eyed Forester through his bangs. He looked like he was ready to explode. "Yes, Onna no Baka. I've got my things together. Shall we go?" Ranma grinned unrepentantly at Charlie and walked out, following Sunny. His laughter rang out in the hall followed by a smack and Sunnys giggles. "Onna no Baka indeed. Is that any way to address me?"

After collecting his sword and speaking to Steven about arrangements to bring in a full battalion at a moments notice, Ranma and Sunny boarded a Jolly Green Giant and headed for the Amazon village of Pearl of Great Price, the home of the Amazonian High Council.

Each village had a council of Elders, but they answered to the High Council and that was what Ranma was aiming for. As Sunny's husband he would have an entry into the council chamber and, if they acknowledged him, he could try to get them to intervene.If this don't work, I'm in real trouble. I don't know what we'll do

Ranma settled himself in one of the seats and crossed his feet at the ankles.

"Sunny, unless you need me for somethin', I'm going to sleep until we get there. I'm gonna be so short of sleep soon I'd like to bank some z's now."

"Sure Ranma, you go to sleep. I'm gonna make some calls.." At Ranma's look she grinned "What? . . . not all the villages are hide bound. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at my village. We're quite modern. Sleep, now."

Ranma smirked at Sunny. "Yes, Mistress. Sleep now." And he did. Falling asleep almost at once, but he didn't miss Sunny's look. Later for you, Boy

Ranma woke once to find himself laying on the seats. Several armrests had been folded up so he could lay flat, but the most interesting thing was he had his head in Sunny's lap and she had her fingers entwined in his unbraided hair. He wondered when that had happened, then fell back to sleep.

"Ranma, wake up! We're here. Now you have to be in submission. Please, you can't make a mistake. No matter what happens, don't speak, don't resist, and for heavens sake don't disobey me, no matter what. You understand?"

Ranma knuckled the sleep out of his eyes and nodded. Sunny put the tip of her finger on his lips, Ranma nodded again and licked her finger, just barely touching the tip of his tongue to the pad of it.

Sunny sighed, "You're going to be difficult aren't you?"

Ranma made puppy-dog eyes at her and shrugged.

When they disembarked Ranma knelt at Sunny's feet as she greeted her Grandmother, an Aunt and two women who weren't introduced.

"Grandmother, this is Ranma. He's my fiancee. Please make him welcome."

"Well, well, child I had despaired of you. Why is he kneeling?"

"He's the boy who beat Xian Po, the one who repudiated her? Kou Lon had a time convincing her Council that Xian Po should be allowed to marry Mu Tzu, remember?"

"Ah. And you want him for your own? Well, he's a fine-looking thing. He know what's about to happen to him?"

Sunny stroked Ranma's hair and allowed him to put his arms around her thighs and press his cheek to one. "No Grandmother, I don't know myself. This hasn't been done for over six hundred years. So. . . but he'll do as he's told."

The Aunt spoke up with a frown. "You better have a really good reason to put that young man through an antique Amazonian marriage ceremony. With all the trimmings. Really good or I'm going to have a talk with your mother."

"Auntie, it's so important I'm willing to risk Ranma hating me when all this is over. I only have a vague idea from some of the things I've heard older women say. Ranma get up."

Ranma stood and at the Aunts gesture he turned, not to follow her, but to Sunny for permission.

"Yes, Ranma go with Aunt. Do what ever she tells you to do unless it involves any sort of damage to your person. Do you understand?" Sunny's look took in Ranma and her Aunt. She nodded to Sunny and again gestured to Ranma.

Ranma wasn't too happy with being separated from Sunny but he followed the Aunt into a building and obediently stripped off his clothes and stepped into the tub.

"Well boy, you're well setup. Very nice body." Ranma shivered, her assessment was as impersonal as was humanly possible. "You cold? . . . oh, hell. I forgot to get you permission to speak. Now what?"

Ranma shrugged.

"Well. My name is Bo An. I am Sun's Aunt by her Father. Do you know what is going to happen to you?"

Ranma shook his head and then shrugged. Please, just get on with this. I'm nervous enough as it is

"We are going to bathe you then dress you as befits an Amazonian groom. I don't expect you to give us any trouble." She eyed him for a moment "After all how much resistance could a submissive little boy like you put up."

Ranma raised one eyebrow and allowed himself a small smile. Lady, you have no idea

The bath wasn't unpleasant in fact it was nice–until they started gawking at him, they stared and pointed and whispered, until he wanted to scream at them to shut up and go away. But he held it in and stood in the bath, with his head meekly bowed, waiting for them to finish bathing him.

I can do this. I have to. Stand still, shut up. No one noticed his tightly clenched fists or the blood seeping from between his fingers.

When they finished with the bath, the women dressed him in a pair of pants with draw strings at waist and ankles, a shirt with very long tails, nearly to his ankles and a pair of soft slippers. He'd only had one small problem, they wanted to take his watch and bracelet. When he'd refused silently to allow them to take either piece of jewelry, Bo An had sent one of the younger women to Sun for advice. She simply sent word back that he was to be allowed to keep both.

"Well, young man, you seem to be favored. She has also sent word that you aren't to be chained. It is a true test of your commitment that she allows you the freedom of your body. She only wants your hair braided.

Ranma wondered just exactly what he'd gotten himself into but he _would _complete the marriage ceremony no matter what. 1) he couldn't give up on anything he'd decided to do, 2) he wouldn't embarrass Sunny in front of her family and 3) if he didn't get into the Village they'd have to commit a breach of international etiquette that would cause more problems than he wanted to imagine.

Keeping his head down, Ranma just shrugged his shoulders.

In the council chamber Sunny was glaring at the council with a look that would have frightened even Ranma.

"I realize that this is most unusual, but I _will _marry Saotome Ranma, he _will_ prove his devotion to me and you _will_ support me in my desires. Do I make myself clear? I will not subject him to examination by committee. Absolutely not. There is a great deal more involved in this than teen-aged horniness. He's making a greater sacrifice than you realize and I will not have you humiliate him any more than absolutely necessary.

Ranma would have been shocked at Sunny's uncharacteristic harshness even though it was for his sake.

Ranma entered the room and glanced around, it was a large room, with six tiers of seats. They were only half full, but that still meant that there were almost a hundred and fifty women in the room. All staring at him. He went directly to Sunny and knelt at her feet.

"Submit, boy."

Ranma again offered Sunny his crossed wrists, but this time she bound then together with a silk ribbon that a child could have broken. A concerned gasp rose from the gathered Amazons. Ranma bowed to the floor and allowed Sunny to put her bare foot on his neck. She was very gentile and pulled him to his feet immediately.

"Come, boy."

Sunny quickly led Ranma to a room and slammed the door, shooting a dead bolt and slamming a cross bar into place.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with. Come here and let me untie you. You can speak as you will. Love?" Sunny grasped Ranma by the chin and looked him in the eyes. "Are you ok? You want to go home?"

Ranma allowed Sunny to untie him, "Yes, but . . . No. This is too important. We've got to get to the Council of Elders and this is the only way. Tell me you thought of something else and I'll be happy. When do we have the ceremony?"

"Un . . . Ranma . . . that was it. We're married."

"Damn. Romantic much?"

"Yeah well. What did you expect hearts and flowers?"

"I expected more than a foot on my neck. Even if you did take off your slipper. Maybe a kiss or something."

"Well . . . there is the consummation."

Ranma goggled at Sunny and nearly choked on his tongue. "T the what? I. . . you . . . er . . . we?"

Ranma's brain went directly to his groin

"Yes, we. We're married. Really married. And we have to consummate it or it's not valid and if it's not valid we're stalled. Ranma?"

Ranma's brain scrambled around in his skull for a minute before he realized what Sunny was saying.

"We have to . . . but . . . I'm . . . you. Oh, hell. Fuck! Damn, we're so screwed."

Sunny grabbed Ranma by the arm and pulled him onto the bed.

"Not yet, we're not. Lay down."

S S S S S S S S

Sunny let her hands roam over Ranma while he tried not to spontaneously combust.

"Ranma?"

"Huh?"

"Take off your clothes."

"Yeah . . . un."

Ranma's eyes glazed over and he had trouble untiing the drawstring, he finally snapped it and dragged the pants off, jerking them over his feet and breaking the ankle strings as well

Sunny meanwhile was enjoying the vision of Ranma completely flustered.

"Ranma, let me, you'll tear it."

"Fuck it! I'll tear it if I want."

"No you won't. You still have to obey me. They'll know."

"How?"

"I don't know they just will. It's happened before. Hold still."

Ranma held still as Sunny unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside. She slid her hands over the flat planes of his chest and teased at his nipples with her finger tips. Ranma reached out to do the same for her and her soft whimper was loud in the quiet of the room.

Sunny pulled the tie off Ranma's pig tail and ran her fingers through his hair, loosening it and gently massaging his scalp. She slid her hands to the back of his neck and pulled his head up. Pressing her lips to his, she explored his mouth, kissing him until air became a very real concern.

Ranma lay back panting and tipped his head back, exposing his neck to her teeth and lips. She took advantage of that hesitant gesture and left a trail of tiny nips and kisses down from his chin to his breast bone. Blowing cool air across the damp skin made Ranma's eyes roll up in his head, his eye lids fluttered shut as he enjoyed her touch.

Sunny straddled Ranma's hips and started to kiss him again. When they parted again Ranma was grinding his teeth

"Sunny let me . . . I can't . . . I'll hurt you . . ."

"No you won't. Just . . . here."

Ranma pushed Sunny away, he was so hot he was forgetting everything but his need, he knew he needed to regain some control or he'd inadvertently hurt Sunny.

"Please . . . I don't know what I'm doing. I'm afraid I'll hurt you. Sunny? What?"

Sunny took the heavy silk rope off the bed curtains and tied it to the bed posts. Then she gently put it in Ranma's hands. "Don't let go." Ranma took hold of the rope and held on for dear life.

After what seemed hours, Sunny wriggled one last time and eased herself off Ranma, whispering in his ear, "Wo ai ne, husband."

Ranma moaned and shifted, letting go of the rope. Mmmmmm Wo ai ne, wife." then he covered his eyes with his arm.

"Holy Shit. We're married."

S S S S S S S S

Ranma lifted Sunny in his arms smirked at her and the bemused expression on her face, then he carried her to the bathroom and started up the jacusi. They sat in the tub and washed each other winding up exhausted and ready for bed, to sleep

"You hentai."

"Hum . . . me?"

"Yeah you."

"Oh . . . yeah."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Arise."

"Damnit! I knew it was a mistake to unbar that door."

"Silence."

Ranma reared up from the bed, pushing Sunny off his chest, and eyed the woman with considerable disfavor. Sunny didn't bother trying to hide herself, she glared at the woman with an arrogant frown that was just not Sunny.

"We'll be in the Council Hall in one half an hour; see that everyone who should be there, is."

The woman bowed and left with a sour expression on her face.

Ranma followed Sunny into the bathroom and straight into a toe curling kiss. He returned it with enthusiasm and joined her in getting ready for a new and probably uncomfortable day.

After showering and washing hair Ranma brushed Sunny's hair and braided it for her, snapping an elastic on the end he leaned down and nibbled on the nape of her neck.

"Stop that. We don't have time. I've got to do your hair. I won't have you appearing before the council messy. I'll look like I don't take proper care of you. Oh and . . . "

Ranma, who had settled between Sunny's thighs to have his hair brushed and braided, tipped his head back and blinked at Sunny owlishly. She giggled at him. He looked so funny upside down like that. She was happy, so far things were working out well, Ranma hadn't freaked out, and he was an amazing lover.

Sunny carefully braided Ranma hair and swept the pig tail over his shoulder. Leaning down she pressed her lips to his trapezious, just back of his shoulder and sucked--hard.

"Wha. . . whacha doin'?"

"Nothing bad. I just marked you."

"Oh. Well, we better get goin.'"

"Ranma, this will be hard for you. You'll be on display and you mustn't react, no matter what they do. I won't leave you. Just remember; don't talk to anyone without my permission or obey any order or request from anyone but me."

"Ok, Sunny. I'll be ok. I can do this."

Sunny reached out and gently took Ranma's hands in hers. "Sure you can. I believe in you." Sunny healed the crescent-shaped cuts on the palms of his hands. Damn, I should have noticed those earlier

Ranma stood on the dais and kept his eyes fixed on Sunny. His Chinese wasn't good enough to follow every thing that she was saying but she was mad.

"I can't believe that you want me to bind him. You think I don't have control of my husband? Are you implying that I can't handle my business? Unlike some people I could mention, I can. I am insulted. My husband is in control of himself at all times. He is not weak, or passive. He is a man among men and a fighter of great skill. He does this because he loves me and it is necessary. If you wish to act the fools, please do so elsewhere."

Sunny stomped over to Ranma and started unbuttoning his shirt, he started to reach up to do it himself, then put his hands back at his sides. If she was doing this, let her do it. All Ranma wanted to do was get it over with as quickly as possible.

Sunny unbuttoned the first three buttons of Ranma's shirt and slid it down off his shoulder, baring the hicky she'd given him. Ranma turned, followed her gesture and felt his stomach drop. She wanted him to stand on a small dais set against the wall.Oh, God! I don't think I can do this.

It looked like a sale block, he'd sworn he'd never stand on one again. But if he failed to cooperate he'd be judged unworthy and his plans would go up in smoke.

"Koi? You're shaking."

"It looks like a slave block. I . . ."

"Oh, Honey! I'm sorry. But if you don't show them that you allowed me to mark you. It's all in vain. They won't accept you and then we can't make the village council obey you."

Ranma straightened his back and, jaw muscles working, stepped onto the block. His forearms shook with the tension of his tightly clenched fists.

"I'll do this. Just . . . they can't touch me. Please don't let anyone touch me. I don't know what I'll do."

Sunny turned to the room and, eyeing each woman there, announced that no one was to touch Ranma, only look.

The eldest woman there just nodded, many of the women hand noticed Ranma's distress.

"No one will touch your man, Princess. He is very beautiful and the temptation is strong, but he is also so delicate. But he must kneel. No one can see the mark."

"Very well. Come Ranma, kneel for me. "

Ranma knelt on the raised platform and bowed his head. He was shaking so hard that all the women could see it.

"Why is he so fearful, surely you don't abuse him. This is not good. You must comfort him. We have no wish for him to fail."

Sunny stepped up on the platform and stood in front of Ranma. She started stroking his hair and he suddenly lunged towards her, all the Amazon women gasped, but he only wrapped his arms around her hips, burrowed his face in her stomach and clenched his fists in her top.

"Ssshh, Koibito. It'll be over soon. Just stay calm. I'm here and I won't let anyone touch you."

"What have you done to the boy, he trembles like a . . . " the Elder's face clenched in fury. "When was he a slave and where did you find him."

"Ranma was a slave in the shadows. I found him, as you put it, in the Compound. Be quick, he doesn't need this foolishness . . . Ranma show them, then they'll hurry. I'm tired of catering to their foolish clinging to tradition."

Ranma drew blood to the surface of his skin and let the whip scars show. All he wanted was for his ordeal to be over.

"Aaahh. So, he is, indeed, a brave man. . . . come ladies, let us make an end to this, the Princess is getting annoyed."

The women filed past Ranma and Sunny, looking at the mark on Ranmas' shoulder and moving away again. He did fine until one of the women just had to touch him. The feel of her cold fingers stroking his shoulder nearly undid Ranma but Sunny reached out and snatched the offending member away snarling, "Hands off. No touching what's mine."

Ranma laughed softly into Sunny's stomach.

"Yours? Possessive much"

"You better believe it Bishie. You are mine as I am yours. Get over it."

"Never."

Sunny announced to the room in general. "That's all. N o more. I said no touching and I meant it. We will be going back to our rooms now." One of the women made a halting gesture. "What do you want?" Sunny didn't look happy at all.

The woman motioned to three men standing in an arch way. They came forward with their arms full of cloth.

"He must be accepted. You know that as well as I do. But he will not be humiliated, that went out in the '80's, the 1780's. We are not a hide bound bunch of hick mountain goats. Traditions must be observed especially when it is as important as Ma seems to think it is. So . . . "

The men set up a small inclosure made heavy silk cloth stretched over standing poles. Then they entered, tugging Ranma along with them.

"Hey. Watch it. Gettin a little personal there."

Ranma blinked, the men had quickly folded the fabric walls back and now he got a look at himself. He was dressed in black pants with banded ankles, a long tabarded top and soft Chinese slippers. The pants were plain, heavy silk, but the top was embroidered with a dragon on the front skirt and scale patterns down the sleeves. And he was given a flat black cap with not only a red tassel but a jade button on the top.

"But . . . but this kind of cap is only worn by a prince. I'm not. . . I. Sunny what the hell is goin' on here?"

"Ranma, I'm an Amazon Princess. I thought you knew. I'm sure I told you a long time ago. That means that you are a prince of my people. And. . ."

Ranma got an evil look on his face. "That means that the Council has to listen to me."

"Was it worth it?"

"Weighed against the lives that could be lost? Yeah, it was worth every second of it. . . especially last night."

"Pig."

"No, that's Ryouga."


	42. Chapter 43

Ranma 43

Ranma and Sunny went back to their room and changed clothes, while Ranma took the opportunity to sponge the sweat off his torso, Sunny called a meeting of the Eldest Ones.

"Ranma, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'll survive. It was pretty bad, but I'm ok now."

"I'm sorry, but you know we had to do it. If you want them to respect you, you have to cater to tradition. Things are changing slowly but surely. Only we don't have time for you to earn their respect the easy way."

"When is anything in my life the easy way? Did you get the meeting we need?"

"Yes. We'll be meeting with the Eldest of the Eldest in about ten minutes."

"Good. I hope she'll cooperate with us."

"Mom is always cooperative when it's necessary."

"Huh?"

"The Ancient doesn't deal with outsiders so Mom, as Second in line to the throne, does it."

"If she's second, who's first."

"Auntie Bo An."

"Oh . . . un . . . Sunny? Who's third?"

Ranma cringed internally at Sunny's soft 'me'

"Well, I'll be damned."

Sunny just started out the door. They could deal with this later, right now they had to convince the Council that they were justified in declaiming what amounted to Martial Law in Joketsu.

In the council chamber the Elders were already shouting at each other as Yao Ma sat in the throne at the head of the table waiting for them to run down. But it wasn't happening.

Sunny went straight to her and leaned over her shoulder to whisper in her ear.

"How's it going? Are they still shouting, or did they just start?"

"The older Elders are against letting a Man do this. The rest of them are just glad that someone has finally found out what that bunch of idiots is hiding. I'm about ready to shut them down . . . if I could get their attention that is."

Ranma hesitantly leaned over the other shoulder, ready to back off at the slightest signal.

"How bad you need their attention?"

"Not that bad. Let them run down on their own. While they're doing that–get ready for your presentation."

Ranma and Sunny turned to the front of the room, but the equipment was already set up and ready. All they had to do was boot the notebook and cue the slide show. It was all conjecture and supposition, except for the picture of the dragon that Steven had managed to get. It was flying and only a silhouette, but it got the point across.

"Enough! Silence! I SAID, QUIET!"

Even though Ma shouted as loud as she could the Council members were still shouting so loud that no one heard her.

Ranma stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled so shrilly that the door guards came rushing in to see what the noise was.

"SHADDAP! The lady wants your attention."

The noise stopped like a switch had been thrown. Every eye in the room turned to Ranma, he just pointed to Ma and grinned like a shark; all teeth, no joy.

When Sunny started her presentation every woman in the room got still and very quiet. Ranma made no bones about the fact that they were sure of their information. Eye witness accounts from Northern Japan and Steven's testimony left little doubt in anyone's mind about what was going on. Ranma made the point that they just didn't understand why.

Several of the women asked for a short recess while they called relatives in the village and tried to get information. Ma allowed them an hour to make their calls.

When they re-adjourned, Ma called on each woman in turn and the information they had gathered was all bad or worse. The Elders had been hiding the fact that they couldn't handle their business for a year. Everything pointed to a, by now, rather large dragon in the mountains above Joketsu village.

Sunny snarled. "Ranma we have to get to that village now. They have been hiding things for more than a year."

"Damn, and we're just finding out now because?"

"Save face, lose life."

"Shit. Find out everything you can."

"Ranma, never mind finding out stuff from here. We go, we kick ass and take over. Martial Law it is and you'll get everything you need to crush this problem."

"Sure I will, you don't know how stubborn . . . "

"Ranma, you are the First Husband of a Royal Princess of the Original Blood."

"Yeah? Lots of capital letters there. And so?"

"Ranma, in light of the fact that the Ancient One's First Husband died more than sixty years ago and she never remarried. Daddy . . . isn't around. That makes you the nearest thing to a king the Amazons have had in . . . well, a long time."

"Who? . . . Me?" Ranma pointed to his own nose. "I'm . . . oh. How much authority does that give me?"

"You want someone dead . . . you point and say so."

Sunny looked grim. Ranma was still not that sure of himself. In combat he was as self-assured as anyone could be, but between his Pop and everything else that had happened to him, he still didn't understand his own worth.

"Ran-chan, you have to get a grip. There is a big difference between being arrogant and knowing what you can do and letting people know it. It's all attitude, correct yours."

"Ok, ok, I just . . . well, I'll have to make sure I don't make the wrong gesture, won't I. I'll shoot my own dog thank you."

Yao Ma interrupted them, "Sunny you need to get going and soon, I've called for the . . . battle group. How many men are you taking in?"

Ranma turned to her, shrugging, "I called for a battalion, full metal panic. Choppers, ground to air, and anything else I thought might help. How are we going to get the Elders to . . . not accept, but at least not interfere?"

Ma told him and watched as he got the most evil grin anyone hand ever seen on his face.

"Oh, I'm sooo gonna enjoy this. They deserve this. They can't manage a settin' hen and a clutch of eggs. Left this mess to fester for a year because they were too proud to ask gaijin for help. Now they have to . . . " Ranma started snickering. "Wife, permission to get the hell going."

Sunny made a lead on gesture.

Back in the chopper Sunny finally gave in to her emotions and broke down, wrapping her arms around Ranma she sobbed as if her heart was broken.

Ranma just scooped her up and plunked her down in his lap. He stoked her back in gentle comforting motions until she cried herself out and stopped, sniffling softly.

"Want to talk about it, Koi. Or are you just tryin' to scare me outta a year's growth."

"Oh Ranma. I'm sorry the only way we could do this was get married. I' . . . "

"Why? Un . . . was I . . . not good? You disappointed in some way? If you were, just tell me and I'll fix it."

"That's not it. You know it's not. I love you more than anything. But I wanted to . . . well, it's not . . . oh shit! Why did we have to do it like this?"

Ranma was now perfectly aware of what Sunny was trying to say, so he just nestled her head against his chest and stroked her braided hair gently. His soft chuckle rumbled against her cheek.

"You don't like the way we did it. I'll buy us a copy of the Kama Sutra. How's that? Plenty of ways in there and some really romantic stuff too. You might like "Butterfly kisses"

"Yao Saotome Ranma! You know that's not what I meant. Baka, and when did you read the Kama Sutra. Did you read all of it?"

"You really think Pop ever let me read that book? I just heard about it here and there and Kasumi said somethin' one time about the kisses. But we could get a copy. Ya know?"

"Hentai."

"You married me." Holy crap! I'm Married! How the hell did that happen?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the chopper landed Ranma and Sunny were met by Steven and Ranma's Secondary team, all grinning like maniacs

Ranma looked around and found that Sunny was actually hiding behind him. Peeking around his shoulder as if she was afraid someone would get on her for something.

Steven grinned at Sunny and handed her a package.

"What is it? What's that?"

Sunny was examining the object with a disgusted look on her face. It was just a small oval of steel. Ranma reached out and took it from her, tucking it into his pocket he turned to Steven.

"If you _ever_ give my wife something like that again, I'll break you in half . . . I know you thought it was funny, but she's an Amazonian Princess and you just don't give her a . . . One of those. And you_ especially_ don't embarrass her."

Steven turned to Conroy with a snarl, "I thought you said it was a wedding ring. I don't like jokes like that. _Not_ funny."

Conroy had the grace to look ashamed. "Well, all the guys thought it was funny. They gave Ludovic the same thing and he thought it was hilarious."

Yeah? Well, he's thirty-six. And Sherry is thirty. They're _Seventeen_ asshole."

"Ranma. Hey . . . sorry."

Ranma dismissed the whole thing with a wave of his hand.

"Now that you're all done acting like your age is your IQ we need to get into the village. This is how it works. I'll go in with Sunny and take on the Council of Elders, get the information we need and we'll go take care of things. It might take a day, so just set up operations right here. There's plenty of room to set up everything we need. Oh, and _no_ shivaree tonight. They'll take it the wrong way and won't appreciate a bunch of foreign men invading the village."

Steven just nodded and started to issue orders, when he finished he turned back to Ranma and apologized for the 'present', saying if he'd known what it was he'd have junked it.

"That's ok. I suppose I should have expected something like that. But Sunny's . . . well, not innocent, but she hasn't been exposed to the crudities you and I have. Just don't put me on the spot like that again. Ok?"

"Sure, but . . . Never mind. I don't think I _want_ to know."

"One word, . . . Happosai."

"Oh shit! _That_ pervert panty thief!"

Sunny butted in just then. "He's not here right now. He's with the Ancient. And I hope she chains him up in the dungeons forever; he's just nasty. It's a wonder he didn't corrupt Ranma completely."

Then Steven realized exactly what Ranma was wearing. He turned a funny shade of green and made a soft noise in his throat, like he didn't know wether to whimper or choke.

"You . . . I . . . She . . . Ranma . . . "

"Well shit. I thought you knew Japanese, Steven. Spit it out before you choke on it."

"That robe is only for the consort of the . . . Sunny! Just _exactly where _in line are you?"

"Third Steven. I know I told you all at sometime or other. You just don't listen to me like you ought."

"But if you're third, isn't your father entitled, not Ranma?"

"Daddy isn't around and the Ancient is widowed. So that makes _Ranma_ First Consort. Isn't it delicious?"

Steven shook his head and just walked off, muttering about shit magnets and obscenely weird luck.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ranma, we go village now?"

"Idiot."

"Last time I get to enjoy fun for a while. Now I have to be Princess. It's boring."

"Sunny?" Sunny made a soft noise of inquiry. "Why are you in the Compound instead of at Pearl of Great Price?"

"Well, as a healer it's my duty to be where I'm needed most and I guess . . . well. Mom was getting concerned because I really wasn't amounting to much. I'm one of only four women of the royal line. And before I got to the Compound I was pretty spoiled. "At Ranma's snort, she shook her head. "No really. I only cared about clothes and hairdos and silly stuff. Mom clobbered it out of me by taking me to the Compound and exposing me to real life. I hope I'm a better person than I was when we first met."

"Sunny, if it hadn't been for you I don' think I'd have made it past the first week. You and all the others let me see what life was supposed to be like. I _never_ thought you were spoiled."

"I was, but I wanted you to like me so much that I just . . . got over it."

"Kiss me and lets go tackle the Council. Literally, I'm afraid."

Sunny and Ranma took the time to be very through, afraid that they wouldn't have time for much more for a while.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Instead of allowing Sunny to walk, Ranma lifted her into his arms and took off running. Sunny didn't bother to struggle. She liked it fine just where she was. Ranma smelled of the soap and shampoo that Bo An had compounded especially for him; the combination of cinnamon, cardamom, lemon balm, and myrrh, combined with Ranma's own masculine scent made her slightly dizzy and very glad she could claim him as her husband.

The run down the path to the village was the last pleasant thing to happen to either of them for many days.

Sunny let Ranma put her down at the bend just before the gates of the village. She straightened her robes and Ranma's, making sure that they exuded the dignified air needed. Then she watched as the Ranma she knew and loved disappeared as Ranma called his battle aura, not much of it, just enough that it was obvious, and he got an arrogant sneer on his face. If that's what he looked like before, no wonder he was always in a fight.

The two guards tried to stop them, but Sunny just glared them out of the way and it didn't hurt that the women recognized not only Ranma, but the robes they were wearing.

"You are Yao Sun?"

"Yes. And this is my First Husband, Yao Saotome Ranma. We wish to speak with the Council of Elders. Please tell them we require their presence in the Council Chambers at once."

Ranma glared at the woman as she started to protest, she wilted quickly and ran off to do what she could.

"Ranma? . . . Don't extend your aura too much, it's been a while, but I think I can handle them. As long as they don't challenge me, I'm ok. If they challenge me . . . "

"That's why we're married, as your First Husband I'm your champion and proxy." Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and looked . . . fierce, proud and just a touch smug.

Sunny suddenly relaxed so much she nearly went limp. "Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried that I might have to take on the Eldest and I'm not up to her level by a long shot."

"I'm up to her skill level and beyond. Don't you think?"

"Ranma, you'll flatten her. I hope. I really don't like her much. She's so old that she . . . well. Just thank your luck stars that it isn't Kuo Lon. She's the oldest member of this tribe and . . ."

"Scared shitless of that boy. He's got a holding aura bigger than his old full battle aura. " Ku Lon turned to Ranma. "What the hell have you been doing, Boy?"

"You want the whole story, I'll tell you if I survive this. What the hell were you thinking to let this go so far?"

"I was in Japan, trying to get that foolish Great-grand-daughter of mine married off to some brat with an attitude."

Ranma shook his head, "Not my fault that you didn't know when to let go. If you'd been here, where you were supposed to be . . . well. Beating a dead horse does no good."

"True, true. And you're right. If I hadn't stepped down as Head of the Council of Elders we wouldn't be in this mess. I just came back from up the mountain. Boy, you have to force the issue. You're not going to get anywhere with them. And that dragon is huge."

"Ok, Old Ghoul. What do I do?"

"What are your plans?"

"I need to know how I can make them cooperate so we don't have them in the way and the central government lodging a protest--interference in internal affairs or something."

"Aaa. All you have to do is defeat the head of the council, since you're already married to a member of the royal family you won't have to worry about getting into the same situation we had before."

"What if I just beat the whole council?"

"Then you . . . Boy! You can't do that.. . . can you?"

"Yeah. But what if I do?"

"Then you rule the village. Or your wife does. And Sunny isn't competent to . . ."

"Yes she is, but she'll abdicate in your favor. You rule, get us what we need, and call it even for all the crap you put me though."

"You're harsh."

"Life's a bitch, and bad tempered at that. Take a pill."

"Well, let's get going."

Sunny had gotten wide eyed at the thought of actually having to rule a village on her own and was glad that Ranma had it all planned out. He was amazing, he adjusted plans and compensated so fast it was down right scary. He said he didn't have plans, it seemed to her that he had, but that he could change them on the fly without getting confused or stressed.

"Sunny? You know that I'm gonna challenge the whole council? Don't worry about it. I won't hurt anyone too much. Just enough to get the point across."

"Ok."

Twenty minutes later they were standing at the front of the council chamber listening to another group of amazon elders squawking like chickens with a fox in the hen house. Sunny let them go for about another two minutes. Then she suggested to the Eldest One that she was a fool and couldn't control her meeting.

Ranma gave up. He knew they weren't going to get anywhere with them. He'd given them a chance and they'd wasted it. Now he was going to get things on the right track. He usually let things take their own course and coped with the results, but there was too much riding on this.

"Lady Wife, this is enough. Challenge her and get it over with."

"No, Husband, she must challenge me or I can't use a proxy."

Ranma clenched his teeth and wondered how he could get the old bat to challenge Sunny. But Sunny was on the same page he was on and already had things planned out.

"I'm sorry. . ." Sunny smirked at the old woman and hesitated just that one beat too long "Elder. I hate to press the point but we must do some thing about your . . . incom . . . er . . . misguided . . . un . . . " by now the Elder was about to have apoplexy and she made the mistake that Ranma and Sunny were waiting for.

"I challenge you to Combat Majeure."

"You're fucking insane. To the death?" Ranma wished she hadn't done that, he didn't want to kill anyone.

"Yes. Stay out of this, . . . Boy."

"Don't think so, you old bat. I'm her husband and her champion. Not that she really needs one, but why should she have to dirty her hands with idiots like you when she has me."

The old woman attacked Ranma so suddenly that she actually got in the first blow not that it made much difference as Ranma only allowed the force of her blow to turn his head, when he turned back she stepped back in fear, he looked like something out of an old nightmare. He smiled so gently that at first no one noticed the blankness behind his eyes. He had a frozen quality to his gaze that was terrifying.

He took up his well known aggressive stance and crooked his wrist, giving her a come on gesture

that invited her to her own funeral. She didn't have the sense to back down and attacked him with a kei that shook the rafters, which she hit a split second later. The rafter cracked and the old lady hit the floor unconscious.

Ranma motioned Sunny to see to her and turned to the rest of the council. "I know that none of you will be satisfied without beating someone, so come on, let's get this over with before I get bored. 'K?"

They attacked him in concert, coming from all sides and attacking not only with bare hands, but with every weapon available to them, with no idea of what they'd unleashed among themselves. The fox in the hen house analogy held very well, as Ranma waded through them like the fox through, not hens but baby chicks. Bodies flew every which way as he indulged himself in a full use of the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken and some hard assaults that would have splintered every bone in the body of less than an Amazon.

That wasn't the end of the fight, you don't get the entire Council of Elders down in one short match. They attacked from every side again and Ranma started picking his targets. He started with the three most aggressive of the Elders and knocked them out with a series of punches carefully calculated to leave no marks but keep them out for at least a full minute. I hope they're strong enough to deal with the concussion

After taking care of the first three, the rest were not easier however, they were a little quicker. He let them gang up on him and stunned as many as he could with a Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken attack that left some of them backing away and looking for exits and some of them out cold.The rest attacked again and Ranma turned into a ball of fury, his kicks and punches left no doubt in the minds of any of them that the Wild Horse was well and truly pissed.

The end came as an anticlimax. Ranma simply ran out of opponents and stopped.

He looked around and saw that all the amazons were down and some of them out, including the first three. He waited until they were all at least semiconscious and then turned to Sunny, at her nod he turned back

"You all have seats, get in them!"

There was a rather undignified scramble for chairs as the council got themselves sorted out and seated

Ranma stalked to Sunny's side and knelt. A less submissive kneel couldn't be imagined, his shoulders were pulled back and, while his hands rested on his thighs, they were plainly ready, his head was bowed but only a fool wouldn't have noticed that his constantly roving eyes didn't miss a twitch.

Sunny started explaining to the women what she wanted and the uproar started again.

"Damnit Ranma, they won't listen. What am I going to do?"

"Nothing. I've got it."

Ranma stood, walked to the table and brought his clenched fist down on it hard enough to make the ebony boom like a drum.

"Enough! . . . I am taking over. You should have listened to the Princess; now you listen to me." He looked from face to face, grimly smashing any resistance with a glare that left icicles behind. "This council is . . . dissolved. Permanently." Ranma didn't bother to shout nor even raise his voice, his words dropped into the silence like crystal shards. "I'm sure that Lady Kuo Lon will appreciate your returning to your homes in an orderly manner and keeping curfew. Go . . . now . . . before I take you. I guarantee you won't like it if I do."

The council filed past Ranma and, after he grabbed the first one and forced her, bowed to Sunny on their way past, a few mumbles of 'Stupid Girl' were met with blank faced disbelief on Sunny's part and snarls from Ranma. The mumbling stopped when Sunny greeted Kuo Lon and she bowed to Sunny and addressed her as Heir Tertiary Yao.

Kuo Lon shrugged her shoulders and watched the rest of the council file out of the room and head for their homes. They had no idea of exactly what had happened, but the village was about to find out that the elderly lady wasn't going to support the statice quo, she was going to make some radical changes and this invasion of foreigners was a blessing in disguise for many of the younger members of the tribe.

"Princess Sun, Prince Ranma, quarters have been prepared for you. You should go to them and rest until the banquet."

"No banquet. You're under Martial Law until this dragon foolishness is taken care of. I don't want the amazons and my troopers getting near each other. The village is off limits to them and the camp is off limits to the amazons. Make sure that they understand that. I want to talk to every witness to the dragon's first appearance and anyone who has actually fought it. Get to it!"

Kou Lon didn't even bother trying to argue. She'd never seen Ranma quite like this, his usual arrogance was tempered with something else--true confidence.

"I'll get everyone I can find and bring them to your quarters as soon as I can. You do understand that there are damn few of them. That beast . . . it's big and aggressive. By the time I realized what was happening and came back again, it was too late. I'm not on the council anymore, so I did what I could for those who would listen to me. Xian Po and Mu Tsu are providing support for those who left." The old lady shook her head sorrowfully, "It's the best I can do."

Ranma patted her on the shoulder. "You do good. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of this. We've got a full battalion and two more fighters right outside the village."

"Who did you bring with you?"

"Ryouga and Kuno, Steven Campbell and a full battalion of Grunts. We'll get it."

"I'll line them up and send them in to you. Get all the rest you can. You're going to need it."

And she kept her word, there were few people left in the village who'd seen or fought the beast but she got them all to come and be interviewed. The results were less than reassuring. The dragon had literally fallen from the sky and immediately holed up in a large cave in the far reaches of a valley high in the mountains. When it had first appeared, it was about the size of an elephant, everyone had thought it was cute and let it live in peace.

After three months, in which it had eaten every wild animal in the area larger than a rabbit, it was five times its original size and becoming more than just a nuisance. So they'd sent out four warriors to kill it. They never came back so next they'd sent out a larger group and one had come back to tell the story. The dragon had learned to fly and it was hunting out an even larger area, which had gotten the Provincial government involved. They had sent in an attack force of regular soldiers who had immediately gotten eaten. Then the central government had sent in a force which had also gotten eaten and then they'd decided to just ignore it and hope it went away.

It didn't. It didn't get much larger because, by now, it was flying. It seemed not to want to leave the mountainous areas and it didn't seem to be eating quite as much, but it still ate a lot. It was eating about ten cows a week, plus whatever it found in the mountains. It expanded its hunting area as it hunted out everything big enough to make more that a crumb. All the governments were now in full denial and refused to take any messages about the 'mythological beast scare' leaving the amazons of Joketsu village to cope with it on their own and they'd done the only thing they reasonably could. They'd called on the Elders to do something, which they'd done, or rather not done. They'd stuck their heads firmly up their asses and denied everything.

"So here we are a year later with a giant mess on our hands, a huge fuckin' dragon eatin' China out of house and home and . . . aaarrgg!" Ranma picked up the table and threw it through the wall. "I fuckin' don't fuckin' believe it, it's just too fuckin' like that bunch of fuckin' bitches . . . "

Sunny reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "Calm down. You've reached your fuckin' limit."

Ranma stopped dead in his tracks. "Huh? . . . Excuse me?"

Sunny laughed softly. "I mean, you've used the word fuckin' four times in that sentence. That's got to be some kind of record. I've never heard you so upset before. Do you think their foolishness is worth so much upset?"

"It's not their foolishness but the loss of life that has me pissed. You do realize that we are going to loose men no matter how careful I am, or how good you are, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, and I don't like it one bit. But what are we supposed to do, just let it eat everything in its path?"

"No, but it would have been nice to have been told while it was still smaller than a Cessna."

Ranma rubbed his neck and looked around the house they'd been given. It was small but nice; clean, warm, and comfortable. He wondered vaguely who they'd put out and then decided it didn't matter much. They'd only be here one night, but he did feel bad about the wall.

The next morning was greeted with groans from both of them, Sunny didn't want to leave the warmth of Ranma's arms, It was cold here this close to the high mountains. And Ranma didn't want to get up and face the mess he had to clean up. He wished the amazonian village council had been more responsible. Damn, he wished everyone involved had gotten their heads out of their collective asses and done what they should have.

Ranma leaned over and gave Sunny something besides the cold to groan about and Sunny reciprocated. After a few breathless moments Ranma threw the covers back and jumped out of bed, dragging Sunny with him

"Come on. We gotta get up. Get dressed. Here take this and put it on. Those robes'll let in every speck of cold around. Go to your duty station and stay there. Kiss!"

Sunny gave Ranma the required kiss and they both headed for where they were supposed to be.

On the way Ranma got his radio out and contacted Operations. He told the operator to get his uniform ready for him and gave him some other instructions that made the man ask for conformation.

"Yes, keep the choppers in the air over the dragon. That'll keep it from flying. I don't want a repeat of the wyvern. Just tell the damn pilots to be careful. I don't want one of them getting a rotor damaged. . . . Oh and tell them that if they got a .50 go ahead and shoot it all they want. I don't think it'll do much good but it can't hurt to keep it confused. Maybe if it gets mad enough it'll screw up somehow."

Ranma turned to see Rio coming toward him with his uniform in his hands. Ranma stripped down and changed right there. At Rio's odd look, Ranma remarked. "I got time to be shy? If they haven't seen it yet its time they did."

Rio laughed and started filling Ranma in on the plans. They'd already tried small arms and a bazooka. The dragon had barely noticed them. It hadn't tried to fly on them but Steven was of the opinion that it was only because it was full and not wanting to exert itself.

"Well, isn't that just peachy. While we were fooling around with councils and marriages that flying stomach ate some more people."

"Marriages? Who . . . un . . . Bricker told me . . . Ranma, you didn't. Did you?"

"I did, and Sunny's a Princess so I'm fucking King of the amazons or something. Don't even ask. It worked. How did they get the central government to agree to all this?"

"They sent a memo to the provincial government which sent one to the village. We're not here. They're still ignoring the whole thing, left it in the hands of the village elders with instructions to 'Fix it'. How are we going to get around the council?"

"There isn't one. I'm it. Or rather, Sunny is, and she put Kuo Lon in charge as her proxy and she told me . . . well, really I told her. Anyway we're large and in charge. So let's get to it and do this."

Ranma finished dressing by yanking on the laces of his vest, clipping the pickup around his throat and screwing the ear piece in firmly. "Test. . . . test. . . . Saotome. Ok guys, suit up and meet me down hill."

Ranma met the Conroy-gumi at the bottom of the hill right by the chopper pad and slapped hands and punched shoulders with them, then he got down to business. He got them lined up and had each one of them assigned a heavy arm. He got everything from hand grenade launchers to ground to air missiles.

"Shit Saotome! You'd think the thing was indestructible the way you're going at it."

"It just might be. We've never faced anything this big or this tough. The Chinese fucked it up good. It's been growing for a year and eaten two command groups plus a few assorted amazons. It's really big. That wyvern is a sparrow compared to this dragon. And don't you forget it. I don't want you guys getting yourselves eaten because you got cocky."

"Eaten?" Conroy looked puzzled, the just a little scared. "How big is this thing?"

"Not sure. Big enough to scare Steven. So it's got to be fairly big."

"Oh, . . . well, shit. I guess we better go swat it then."

They hiked in because the valley was almost inaccessible, you couldn't land a chopper, the walls were almost vertical and any other route put you way too close to the dragon.

"Well, lets get this dog and pony show on the road."

Ranma watched as the men unloaded everything and started shooting at the dragon. He didn't think that it was going to do any good but it was worth the try. Anything to save a life. His men were precious to him and he would rather lose his own life than risk theirs. They tried everything they had. And all they did was annoy the dragon.

Kuno walked up beside Ranma and snarled."We're in deep shit. I'm crazy, but I'm not a fool. What the hell are we going to do. It's so big I don't think I can get a good cut at it. Necks too thick."

Ryouga, standing on the other side of Ranma, grunted. He didn't see any way either. But they all relied on Ranma. More than they should. But there you were. They did.

Ranma studied the dragon and thought. He thought they were in over their heads and he needed to do something quick before they lost a lot of lives.

"Damnit. Nothing touches it. Not a thing. Ranma, you're up, I guess." Rio wiped the sweat off his forehead and grimaced, they all hated it when they couldn't get the job done. They didn't want to have to turn the job over to the 'big gun'.

"Ok. You guys keep up some cover fire. Keep it off balance maybe. That'll help a lot. If we can get it confused enough maybe it'll fuck itself up somehow. Burn off it's own tail."

"It ran out of gas a while ago. Hasn't flamed for at least ten minutes."

"Thanks Rio. That's good news. If it ran out of gas, I wonder how long it will take it to recharge. Anyone have any idea? No? Didn't think so. Oh, well."

Ranma eyed the dragon and thought, he had stuck his hand in his pocket and was idly toying with the wedding present that the guys had given him.

"Um . . . Ranma is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, the guys thought it was a nice wedding present to give to me and Sunny."

Kuno nearly fell over and Ryouga choked. "M-m-m-Married. How, . . . when . . . who . . . I mean."

Between Kuno just staring and Ryouga stammering, Ranma couldn't help laughing softly.

"How do you think I got the Council to do want I wanted them to? I married Sunny and that gave me the juice to dismiss them and set up the Old Ghoul in their place. She's got it together. She'll do what has to be done." Ranma suddenly got an arrested expression on his face. "As I will. Let's go. I got an idea."

Ranma led Kuno and Ryouga to the head of the valley and gave them their instructions.

They flanked the beast and Kuno teased it while Ryouga shot it with Shi Shi Hokodan and Ranma alternated with him using Mouku Takabisha, it didn't do much good, it just scorched his scales a bit.

"Fuck. We're so dead. This isn't doing much good at all. We're going to have to get up close and personal. Ryouga, can you tease it some . . . see if you can't get it to stretch out its neck. Kuno, I know you said its neck was too thick, but see what you can do. Maybe we'll luck out and we can cut its head off. I'll get my sword and we can take turns. If we get in enough cuts in the same place, maybe we can get the job done. I hope."

So Ryouga teased the dragon until it stretched its neck out roaring all the while. Ranma jumped up and as he fell he brought his sword down in a controlled falling cut. Kuno followed immediately after and cut in exactly the same place. They managed a shallow cut that encouraged them. They tried again and the same thing happened. But they couldn't get in more than two cuts in the same place. The dragon seemed to know what they were up to and guarded its wounds.

Ryouga groaned when he landed the last time. It was the last time because he twisted the same ankle he'd twisted the time before.

"Ryu, what's wrong? Did it get you? Where are you hurt?"

" 'S nothing. I just twisted my ankle. It'll be ok. I just need to walk it off."

"Yeah sure." Ranma leaned down and felt Ryouga's ankle. It was hot and already swollen "Yeah. I really think so. You get to the back and get off that. You're gonna get yourself eaten."

Ryouga started to object, then Ranma squeezed his ankle. He nearly fell it hurt so bad.

"You take off wrong on that and you'll break it. But you won't be alive long enough for it to hurt. Don't argue with me, get to the back. I don't have time to baby sit you, and fight that dragon too. Go on, scat."

Ryouga went. Ranma was right. They didn't need to waste time trying to protect him as well as fight.

Ranma snarled; that left him with only Kuno and Steven to help him, and Steven was so busy organizing the grunts that he hadn't been in the combat yet and probably wouldn't see any action at all.

They all watched as someone scored a lucky hit with some sort of ground to air missile. It hit the dragon directly in the mouth and it screamed like a steam whistle. They could see the blood on its tongue as it flicked it out to lick its thin lizard like lips.

"Well shit that helped--not." Ranma got on his radio. "Shuba. How we doing."

"Not good."

"Anything? Anything at all? We need somethin'. We're goin' down hard if we can't figure out somethin'."

"Ranma, I'm doing the best I can. There's just nothing."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's just . . . we gotta get this thing down somehow. We're gonna lose a bunch of men and then it'll go after civilians. Find me something."

"Looking. Just keep it occupied a while longer. I'm sure I'll figure out something. Just don't get eaten in the mean time"

"If I'd . . . " Ranma stopped short. "Well . . . hell."

Ranma thought hard, his only option was . . . well . . . it was worse than bad. He didn't like his chances of coming back from this. But the chances of him killing the dragon were better than good. If he could pull it off.

"Steven. I need to find a guy. . . . don't know his name, but he's a SEAL. I need to see if he has some equipment."

"There's only two SEAL's on this crew. Just have Shuba call them."

"K. Steven? You're . . . my real Dad. Ya know?"

"Thanks kid. Go find those SEAL's." Steven wondered vaguely where that had come from.

Ranma had Shuba call the SEAL's and only one answered. The other was wounded and headed back for base. But the one Ranma did talk to knew exactly what he wanted and he actually had two SCATs with him. Ranma just told him that he needed them.

"Ok kid. You need them . . . and I'm supposed to turn some fairly expensive equipment over to a . . . what . . . fifteen year old because . . ."

Ranma smiled without mirth. "Because I'm a George and a Major and I need them. If they're your personal property, I'll see that you get reimbursed. How does it work exactly?"

"You just put the mouth piece in your mouth, the clip on your nose, and breathe through your mouth. It's got about twenty, thirty minutes worth of air, depending on what you're doing."

"I'm gonna be fightin' for all I'm worth."

"Chop that down to ten if you're lucky."

"Here, I'll clip them to my vest."

"Not with an ALICE you won't. They don't work. The clips aren't deep enough"

Ranma pulled his wedding present from his pocket and used it to clip the SCAT packs to his belt.

"Umm that's a . . "

"Don't say it. It works. That's all that counts. Right? My buddies gave it to me for a wedding present."

"Oh. Umm . . . Well, good luck."

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it."

Ranma headed back for the combat zone. Half way there he leaned against a tree, "I dowanna do this. I don't . . . fuck!" Ranma slugged the tree so hard it cracked and toppled like it had been chopped down with an axe.

Ranma approached Steven who was watching Kuno try to cut the dragons head off. It wasn't working, but he kept trying.

"Steven, see if you can't distract it for a second. I need to get Kuno out of there, he's worn out and he's gonna get in trouble soon."

"Ok. I told him to give up. You got an idea?"

"Yeah, you're not gonna like it." Ranma shivered. He didn't like it either, but he didn't see any other way.

"What is it?"

"Tell ya later . . . just let's go get Kuno out of there."

Ranma and Steven set about annoying the dragon enough to get Kuno away from it. Steven jumped into its face and Ranma followed from the other direction. That got the dragon confused, it snapped indiscriminately at every moving thing near it.

Kuno staggered out of the zone and into the arms of a medic.

"I'm ok. Just really tired. I'll sit down for a while and then I'll be back in."

The medic just gave him a bottle of water and a pat on the back.

Ranma made sure that Steven was taking care of Kuno before he headed back into the battle.

As he headed back to the fight, he put one of the SCAT's in his mouth, then he called the Neko-kun.

Steven shivered as he realized that Ranma intended to go all out on this.

Ranma loped toward the dragon in full Neko mode, he teased the dragon by leaping at its nose and swiping at it with his claws.

Then the dragon stretched out its neck and snapped, Ranma was in the middle of a leap. He practically jumped right into the dragon's mouth

The dragon gulped once.

Everything in the world seemed to freeze for a second as the men and women saw the unbelievable.

The dragon had swallowed Ranma whole.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I will post the next chapter in three days. Don't hunt me down and kill me in the mean time. hides under desk

Picture of Dragon at Elfwood

http:elfwood.lysator.liu.sefanqkekenn2dragon.jpg.html

Replace astericks with slashes.

Pet peeve rant. Please, please, don't' say/write exact same. It's bad grammar at best. Correct usage is exactly the same or identical


	43. Chapter 44

Ranma 44

Steven just stared for a second, then he sat down heavily, nearly collapsing. Sunny burst into tears and fell on the nearest chest. Kuno and Ryouga just stared for a second, then headed for where they'd seen Steven last. The shouts and wails of grief and pain echoed around the valley.

"What?"

"Saotome . . . the Dragon . . . it ate him?"

"Oh . . . my . . . god."

The chaos continued for minutes until Shuba managed to get everyone with a radio to pay attention to him. He organized the troops and started a withdrawal. The only option they had now was a nuclear strike. A dirty bomb which would kill every living thing for several miles around and serialize that area for years.

"I'm not leaving him. I'm not. He can't be dead. He had a plan."

"Kuno come on, we have to go."

Kuno Tatiwaki threw a royal fit, refusing to believe the evidence of someone else's eyes, refusing to leave until he saw a body. Ryouga snarled and snapped, he was all for doing something drastic, he just wasn't sure what. Sunny just stared at the dragon as if to see through its skin into its innards. All the Conroy-gumi started firing anything and everything they could get their hands on into the dragon, Shuba started trying to get them to stop but they wouldn't, so he just sat and listened to them firing.

The dragon could be heard in the background growling and roaring. It sounded . . . in pain.

Trucks and troop carriers were heading out; the radio was being broken down, the tower lowered onto its truck, and choppers still hovered over the dragon to keep it from flying away

Ranma's Team were still pouring fire into the dragon as if it might some how bring Ranma back. Steven was right there with them, he'd gotten his hands on a four-chamber ground to ground missile launcher and was in the process of re loading it for the second time.

"Come on guys, give it up! We got to get out of here." Shuba didn't have much hope of them listening.

"No, it goes down or we don't leave."

"Come on. We're going to bomb it. Dirty nuke. Move out."

"We can't . . . he might."

Conroy gave Rio the look, that look that commanding officers sometimes get when they have to give an order they don't like.

"Still be alive. Damn you . . . he's gone. That fucking dragon ate him. How's he going to live through that?"

"I don't know! But I know he's not gone!"

The entire group refused to leave until the last minute, so Shuba left them alone to battle until they gave up. It was easier on everyone and it kept the dragon distracted until the withdrawal was complete.

As the Conroy-Gumi poured fire into the dragon, they wound up concentrating fire on one place on the dragon's side. It continued to snap and snarl at the fire, but it also screamed like it was in pain and clawed at its chest. Flapping its wings in an attempt to fly, it screamed even louder as one wing didn't seem to want to work properly.

"Stop! Hold your fire! What the hell."

Commands crackled back and forth on the radio, the only band that was working now was the local band between members of the team. Everyone saw the same thing. The dragon was in extreme pain and the wounds that they had given it weren't big enough to be the cause.

"We got to get something . . . what is going on with that bastard. He's roaring fit to split."

"I know, I know. But we're not doing it. That wound isn't enough to . . . oh_ hell,_ that little bastard!"

"I'm gonna kill him when I get my hands on him"

"Ranma"

"he's "

The confused clamor was cut off by Steven, demanding radio silence he cut through the mess of walkovers and swearing.

"I don't know what the hell is going on but that dragon is in pain and we need to find out what's causing it. If it _is_ one of our weapons, we can all use that one and bring it down."

Shuba quickly ran over the compliment of weapons used on the dragon and correlated that with the increase in the dragons reactions. Nothing added up–until he thought to correlate the whole time frame.

"Damnit! That dragon started showing pain reactions approximately three minutes after it swallowed Ranma."

Then into the stunned silence a small voice stuttered, "H-h-he took my SCAT's. . . . Son of a fucking bitch whore. I . . . he . . . he did it on purpose. He let . . . oh, fuck."

"What the hell is a scut or . . . "

"It's a SCAT, a super compression air tank. They . . . well they're small and hold a lot of air for the size. He may have as much as thirty minutes per tank and I had two. If he did what I think he did, he's got a set the size of Texas."

"What do you think he did?"

"I think he **_let_** that dragon swallow him."

Shuba started swearing on the radio and then ordered radio silence.

"I want absolute silence, not a word from anyone. I'm gonna try to get him on the radio."

The SEAL interrupted him, telling him that Ranma couldn't talk to them because of the mouth piece. Shuba replied he knew that but that he might be able to get some sounds from the radio to tell them if Ranma was still alive inside the dragon.

The absolute radio silence was scary in a way. On the sort of radio they used there is always some kind of back chatter, fizzing noises of open mikes and the faint babble of talk on the fringes of the bands, bleed over; that sort of thing. But now there wasn't a sound. And into that silence, behind the screams of the dragon, the sound of grinding teeth came over quite clearly. Then the odd grunt of exertion. Ranma was still alive and doing something inside the dragon.

"Jesus, he's still alive. I can hear him. What the hell is he doing. What." All Steven could do was swear fluently and virulently

Shuba sent out a recall for a med-evac, Sunny and Dr. Tofu. He wanted to call for the whole medical team, but they were too far away, so he settled for what he could get. He also called off all further armed attacks on the dragon. What if they inadvertently did something to Ranma or upset his plans in some way. All they could do was wait, and see what happened next.

After ten minutes that seemed like ten days, or maybe years. The dragon stopped screaming and started to sag, making whimpering noises. Then it just jerked once as its sides heaved suddenly. It collapsed without another sound and lay twitching slightly.

"He did it! He killed it! "

Sunny was jumping up and down and hugging anyone and everyone. They still didn't know where Ranma was but the dragon was down and that meant that he had succeeded. Now if he was just able to get out somehow

The wait nearly killed several of the people standing around worrying. Steven paced and snarled. Sunny clutched Rio's arm so hard that he had bruises. Ryouga and Kuno both approached the corpse trying without success to cut into it somehow. The rest of the observers chewed fingernails or indulged in inappropriate jokes. Anything to let off some of the tension.

Finally the hoped for conclusion arrived. Ranma crawled out of the dragons mouth, choking and swearing. He was slimy with who knew what and fell out of the toothy jaws onto the ground with a soft plop. Then he rolled over onto his stomach and started determinedly crawling away from the gigantic corpse. He didn't get very far as he was immediately jumped by half a dozen men who stripped off his filthy clothes and started checking him for wounds.

He wasn't wounded, at least there were no cuts. He was bruised and had a broken rib or two, but he was barely conscious. When Rio shook him, he barely responded. Rio picked him up and carried him to the nearby lake and just waded into the water with him. He was still covered in slime and it was burning him. Rio only knew that because the men who'd undressed him had gone to wash their hands complaining about it. So Rio took him into the water and started washing the slime off. The water was so cold that both Ranma and Rio started shivering almost immediately.

"We gotta get this stuff off him quick. I don't know what it is, but it's burning me and I know it has to be burning him. Here, find me some soap or something. Come on, don't just stand there gawking at me like a dork."

Dr. Tofu came at a run, with Sunny so close behind him that she nearly tripped him. They both ran right into the water and straight for Ranma and Rio. Other members of the team started getting ready to receive Ranma as soon as he was clean.

As Rio loosened Ranma's hair from its braid Sunny and Tofu started checking him over, that was when Sunny realized that he was in real and imminent danger. He'd used up all his Chi. He'd retained barely enough to keep himself alive.

Everyone has Chi, it is life force, what keeps the biological engine running. Only those who have the skill to use a chi attack of some kind have to worry about running out. These people can actually kill themselves by using up all their chi, Sunny could do it by healing and Ranma could do it by attacking. And that was what he'd done. He had used up so much chi that he was in real danger of dying on them.

Tofu checked Ranma over physically and listed his injuries, he had three broken ribs, a broken ankle, a dislocated shoulder and an assortment of bruises and contusions. None of them life threatening but the lack of chi was going to be a real problem unless someone did something right away.

Sunny ordered Rio to bring Ranma to the lake shore and put him down. Then she ran her hands over him carefully, searching for more wounds. She didn't find any, but she could tell if she didn't replace at least part of his chi he was going to die. So she pressed her hands to his chest and fed him as much chi as she could spare. He absorbed it like a sponge and came to with a gasp.

"Sunny! Stop! Now! That's enough. You can't spare any more. I don't . . . mmmmmf"

Sunny used one of Ranma's tricks to shut him up. He just lay back and let her kiss him, he was so exhausted that he could barely respond.

"Ranma you're gonna get it when you get better what the hell were you thinking husband if you'd warned me . . . "

"You'd have found a way to stop me. Sunny, I can't do this right now. I hurt all over. Can we do this later, like next century?"

At Sunny's motion, Rio took a blanket from someone and carefully wrapped it around Ranma, then picked him up and started for. . .

"Un . . . where am I taking him? He can't go far. And in his condition I really don't think he should endure the trip back to Japan. Is there somewhere near?"

Tofu nodded, he had made arrangements. He motioned to a MASH tent that was set up just a short way away.

"Over here. They really got the tent up quick. Just bring him right in. This tent has everything I'll need to treat him." Tofu bustled around, turning down a bed for Ranma and motioning to Steven who was carrying Sunny. "Put Ranma here and Sunny there. She doesn't need anything. She's just depleted her chi helping Ranma. Too bad she couldn't heal him too, but that's ok. I'll work on him, set the broken bones, and I've got a nice unguent for all those bruises."

Ranma couldn't help whimpering slightly as Rio set him on the bed. He hurt like crazy. In fact he hurt so bad that he passed out, again.

Tofu looked at Sunny and she smiled back. At her nod he turned back the blanket and started examining Ranma, he noted the scars on his chest with a frown and then passed sensitive fingers over his ribs checking for the breaks. He carefully rolled Ranma over onto his side and blinked at the scar under his shoulder blades, he tucked a brace under Ranma and rolled him the other way so that he could fasten it to support the broken ribs. Then he put Ranma's dislocated shoulder back in place and used velcro straps to fasten his wrist and upper arm to the brace to support the joint until it stabilized.

"Ankle." Sunny reminded Dr. Tofu.

"Got it. Just need to get this soft cast and some tape."

"Tape?"

"Yes, I like this kind of cast. Easier on the patient than plaster and you can take it off to bathe."

Dr. Tofu retrieved a two-piece plastic cast and proceeded to gently maneuver Ranma's broken ankle back into place and tape the cast onto it. He gave Sunny a sharp look as she suddenly giggled.

"Something funny?"

"Yes, but not about this. I just remembered something. I'll tell you about it when I'm not so tired."

Sunny proceeded to fall fast asleep, still holding Steven's hand. He'd sat right beside her ,keeping silent so that Tofu wouldn't feel he had to ask him to leave. There would only have been an argument as Steven had no intention of leaving at all.

"Ok Doc. What's the what?"

"I assume, by that question, you want to know Ranma's condition. He's not good. He used up so much chi that he would have died if Sunny? . . . yes, Sunny hadn't replenished it. At quite a cost to herself, I might add." At Steven's concerned look he hurried to say, "she's not in any danger, just very tired. However, Ranma is going to need quite a lot of time to recuperate and so will Sunny. You don't deplete chi to this extent and bounce back over night. Not even Ranma. I've never seen someone use up so much chi and survive. If you have any plans of using Ranma anytime in the next three or four months forget them right now, and as for the girl, she needs at least two weeks rest herself."

Steven dragged his jaw off the floor and sighed. "I know we almost lost him, but you're serious? He really used up all his chi?" at tofu's nod he ran a shaking hand through his hair and shrugged. "He'll get whatever he needs and so will Sunny. Lady Yao Sun and her husband . . . "

Dr. Tofu choked and spluttered, he'd been sipping at some tea and couldn't at first clear his throat enough to even ask, "That young girl is third in line to the throne of Amazona? Oh my. And is her husband coming soon? I need to . . ."

Steven just pointed to Ranma with a slight self-satisfied smirk. "Husband."

"Oh. Do you know how long that young man avoided marriage to someone he didn't love? He liked Akane well enough and if she hadn't had major issues herself I think they would have made a good couple. So now he's married to someone . . ."

"Don't even look there. He loves her more than life itself. And she's just as crazy about him. I never saw two kids so much in love and trying so hard to get over things. She'll make him a good wife and he's perfect for her. He won't put up with the foolishness that the amazons have forced on the husbands of the ruling families for centuries. And she won't either. They had a traditional wedding, but tradition went out the window the minute Ranma came in the door. You'd better get him patched up quick. If you don't, I don't like your chances of escaping one of Sunny's scolds"

Tofu just looked at Steven for a minute then shrugged, he wasn't afraid of a scolding. He was truly more worried about Ranma and Sunny's recoveries than he was about her not being happy.

"Well, I'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now I think you'd better go outside and fill all those unhappy people in on how Ranma is doing."

"Ok, Doc. And just exactly what do I tell them?"

"That Ranma will be fine. It'll take some time, four months at least, but he'll suffer no ill effects from this . . . foolishly heroic or heroically foolish act. Your choice in the wording. And Sunny will be fine in two or three weeks. They both need peace and quiet to recover. I'd like to keep them here, somewhere. Away from the activities at the Compound. You know that Ranma will never rest if he keeps hearing all the choppers taking off and the preparations needed to go to another incursion. So, as Sunny is a Princess, I think that it would be in the best interests of both of them to take advantage of that fact and demand use of one of the royal residencies.

Steven rubbed a hand over suddenly burning eyes. "Ok, Doc. whatever you say. As soon as Ranma is conscious I want to talk to him. I'll go send his team to set up camp and bed down."

Tofu shook his head, saying, "You should tell them to go on home, Ranma won't be awake for at least four days. He'll sleep straight through and I may keep him drugged for another day or two. They are welcome to come in to see him but he wouldn't talk to them or anything. I'm truly sorry about that, but if I let him come to he won't rest, and getting him back under will be impossible. He must rest or he'll never recover, and the damage to his physic could be irreversible."

Tofu watched as Steven dragged himself out of the chair he'd been sitting in and headed out the door.

"Ok, I'll talk to his team, and anyone else with need to know, but no one is going to like it much. They're going to want to guard him or something . I think he'll be safe enough here. Let me get the road on the show, as they say, and I'll be right back."

Steven talked to Conroy and Kuno. Ryouga had been med-evaced back to the Compound and was listening in on his cell phone. The general consensus was that Ranma needed to be back in the Compound but Steven explained Tofu's logic and everyone had to agree so Ranma stayed where he was and everyone else went back to Japan, under very vocal protest.

"Shut up! You all want to stay here and help Ranma and that's good, but you all hang around and he won't rest a second, he'll be up and around messing with you guys. You'll get daily updates on him. You can train and we are going to need your help real bad since Ranma and Ryouga are both hors de combat for the near future. We aren't expecting any big incursions, but we need to stay ready, so you guys go back and get rested and ready. Get going."

They all headed for the chopper pad under protest but agreed that there wasn't much they could do and that Steven was right, Ranma wouldn't rest as long as they were around. Rio snarled, "Steven,, daily updates or I'm gonna come after ya with a rusty file. Got that?"

"Yeah, I do, and I'm coming back with you because he won't rest with me around either. So I'm in the same boat as you."

"Who's gonna take care of the kid if you don't?"

"Damnit! He's got a wife now, and a mother-in-law that's the second-best healer we've got. His wife being the first. She can't do much right now, but she'll be good in another day or so. And if Sunny can't get the job done it can't be done. I'm gonna go tell Tofu that I'm leaving with you all."

That accomplished, he caught up with the men and they all left on the last chopper out. They couldn't help feel that they were abandoning Ranma but they weren't, they were leaving him in the loving care of his wife, mother-in-law and his physician. As well as a, supposedly, very grateful amazon village.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sunny woke late that afternoon and started issuing orders like the princess she was. She got Kou Lon to come to her and made arrangements for them to take over the head woman's house. It wasn't as rude as it might seem because Kou Lon had her own home and the old head woman did too, so the residence had been empty for several years. All Sunny had to do was make arrangements to clean it and they could move in.

"I want it clean by tomorrow, there's a whole village of able bodied women, and men too, who should be glad to do the job. There's no reason it can't be done within the time frame I asked for. If there's some reason that it can't be done I can always have Ranma's secondary team do the job. I'm sure they'll be glad to help us out. It just seems to me that it's a shame that someone like Ranma has to take second place to a bunch of over blown egos."

Sunny smirked at Tofu, "That ought to get them off their fannys and on the job. We should be able to move in tomorrow. I don't want to spend too many nights in this tent, nice as it is. One mountain night here and you'll be convinced. How's Ranma?"

Tofu took Ranma's vitals again. "Well, he's still out of it, but I think he could come to by this evening, late. But if he doesn't come around by tomorrow before we move him I'm going to be worried, until then it's wait and see. How do you feel?"

"I'm tired, but other than that, ok. I would like to try to heal Ranma some, but he'll have a fit. And I think he'd be right. I really don't think I ought to do more."

"That's ok. I've seen him in bad shape before. Not this bad, but really sick. He'll recover in time. I don't like all this chi healing. It's too forced for me. Natural healing lets the mind heal as well as the body. And Ranma has been under a lot of stress, I can tell by the tension in his muscles. What all has he been doing? He's got some scars I'd like explanations for."

Sunny picked at her blanket for a moment while she thought about what she should say. Finally remarking, "I think I should let Ranma tell you whatever he thinks you ought to hear. I also think you're right about healing him. He needs to heal from this naturally, there has been too much stress on him lately, what with his mother and all. So I'll make arrangements and we'll stay here until he's all better. You'll stay, won't you?"

Tofu smiled at Sunny and decided. "I've been his doctor for a year, until he disappeared. I testified at the trial. I'll stay as long as you need me. Now I want you to go back to sleep too. You need rest."

Sunny allowed Dr. Tofu to tuck her in and settled down to sleep, rolling over so that she faced Ranma and he would be the first thing she saw when she woke. Ranma had turned his face to her the minute she'd started talking and some of the tension had left his shoulders.

Sunny woke and watched Ranma sleeping, he was suspended somewhere between sleep and unconsciousness, his eyes rolling and shifting as he dreamed. She watched as he moved restlessly and clutched convulsively at his covers. His lips moved and he twitched.

Sunny fell asleep watching Ranma and woke to Ranma thrashing in the throws of one of his fighting nightmares. All she could do was yell for Tofu and hope he knew what to do about it. It turned out that he did, he sedated Ranma using some mix he'd made up in advance.

After sedating Ranma Tofu dragged out a set of restraints and started to strap them onto the bed.

"Give it up now, they won't work and that'll just upset him even more. You can't restrain him, he'll fight until he either hurts himself or gets loose. We don't want either of those things to happen, do we?"

Tofu looked at Sunny and shook his head, grumbling, "If he's gotten that strong I don't know what to do. He'll start fighting and I don't think I can hold him by myself."

Dr. Tofu tucked Ranma in again and sat down to watch over both teens, he'd been in the Compound just long enough to get settled and have his supervisor find out that he was used to working on Ranma which had put him somewhere near the top of the pecking order and dumped a load of responsibilities on his shoulders that he was perfectly ready to accept. He would get Ranma better no matter what it took.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dr. Tofu watched over Ranma and Sunny for several hours. Ranma didn't wake, but he had nightmares and nearly woke several times. Every time Ranma started to dream, his moans woke Sunny who immediately started soothing him. It worked better than anything Tofu had ever seen, all she had to do was whisper those soothing nothings that everyone used and Ranma was right back to sleep. This was good but it also meant that Sunny wasn't getting enough sleep and that was bad. She needed rest as much as Ranma did if she was to recover.

Ranma opened one eye and groaned. He hurt everywhere, for a moment he couldn't figure out why. Then he remembered.

"Well, fuck. It worked . . . I guess." Ranma opened the other eye and looked around. He didn't see Steven, which made him wonder. But he saw Sunny in the bed next to him and realized that she was getting up, "Sunny stay right there. I won't have my wife getting sick from over healing. You . . ."

But Sunny got up anyway, she wasn't physically ill, just chi exhausted, which could be dangerous if she used up too much more chi without allowing herself time to recover.

"I'll be ok, Ranma. I gave you enough of my chi to keep you from dying and by the way I want to have some words with you about that but I'm not doing anything more for you you'll just have to heal by yourself so don't over do it I don't have any more chi to spare and Tofu will have my head so just lay there and be good"

"Sunny, shut up and kiss me 'K. Cause I thought for sure I'd never see you again and I want you to kiss me so bad I'll get out of bed and . . mmmmffff"

Sunny climbed on the bed and cuddled up to Ranma, kissing him for all she was worth. He kissed her back and realized how weak he was as the simple actions of waking up and kissing Sunny exhausted him.

"Sunny, I'm so weak. I really overdid it this time. I'm already tired. And I'm really thirsty, could you get me some water?"

Sunny poured Ranma a drink of water and stuck a straw in the glass. After emptying the glass and half another Ranma dropped off to sleep again. But he wasn't out of the woods quite yet. Two hours later he threw out a fever.

Tofu sighed and left Sunny to watch over Ranma as he made arrangements to move him into a half-cleaned house, in his condition he couldn't stay in the tent no matter how nice it was, it was still a tent and it would get cold over night. He didn't think the kerosene heaters could keep up the damp cold of a mountain lake valley.

Kuo Lon gathered every person in the village over 12 and issued orders that were sure to be obeyed.

"He saved us at a cost to himself that no other man would have the nerve to pay, so now we pay him back. That house will be livable in the next four hours or I'll know the reason why." And it was.

They moved Ranma and Sunny into the house at dusk and put them in separate rooms over Sunny's protests. Ranma was unconscious again, so he didn't protest, until later.

"Sunny! Sunny, wake up! Hurry. Ranma's combative and we can't get him to calm down, he's thrashing around and has already punched Kou Lon into a wall and I can't get him to listen to me."

Sunny jumped out of bed and couldn't believe she'd slept through so much noise. That showed how tired she was but she hurried to Ranma and crawled onto his bed. She wrapped her arms around him, making Tofu gasp, if Ranma hit her, he could easily hurt her.

"Koi? Shhh, hush . . . it's ok. I'm here. No one is going to hurt you. Hush . . . hush . . . Ssshhh! Nani? Na do kor'ya, Koi . . . Suki da! Kichou . . . no more. Wake up. Ai Shiteru, Koi."

Ranma moaned and opened his eyes, his fever was high again and he was partly out of it still, but he seemed to know Sunny and calmed at once. Sunny settled herself with Ranma's head on her shoulder and lay there petting his hair and whispering to him. There was no way she was going to be separated from him again and she let everyone know it.

Dr. Tofu gave orders for cold water to be brought. He was going to bathe Ranma with it to bring down his fever but when the water was brought, it was hot. He explained to the man that he wanted fresh, cold water but got a blank look, he realized that the man didn't speak Japanese and his Chinese wasn't up to the task.

Sunny spoke from the bed. Her orders were crisp and short. She was in full healer mode and not to be argued with, the man hurried to obey her. This time the water was so cold it made Dr. Tofu's hands sting. But he bathed Ranma's face and arms with it and finally got his fever to break. He knew it wouldn't last but it was good for now.

Ranma snuggled into Sunny's arms and fell into a restful sleep, but Sunny wasn't going to get much sleep with his head on her shoulder and her arms wrapped around him.

"Can't you get him to . . . er . . . um." Tofu turned red, then sighed, running his hands through his hair. He wasn't sure how to address this girl, he knew she was Ranma's wife but was she really a wife or in name only. He knew also that she was a princess, so that confused him even more. "I'm sorry, I'm at a total loss here. Are . . . well . . .um . . . never mind. I'll talk to Kuo Lon in the morning. Go to sleep if you can."

Sunny couldn't have cared less if Tofu was confused or not. She wanted Steven, not this stranger and she decided that in the morning Princess Yao Sun was going to make a long over due appearance.

Next morning, Kou Lon and the amazons were treated to Sunny in full cry. She rounded up the house hold and gave orders, then she got on the radio and called the Compound, when her request to speak to Steven didn't get past the first level she got pissy.

"I gave you a code word that should have gotten me to Steven without questions I want him on the line and I want him now. If I don't hear his voice in the next minute there's going to be hell to pay and I don't mean maybe."

"Look little girl I don't know . . . "

"Just exactly who the hell do you think you're calling little girl in that tone of voice. I am Yao Sun of the Amazons and I will speak to Steven Campbell. Now!"

The man suddenly gulped and punched her up to the next level where she spoke briefly to a supervisor and then was passed on to Steven. He agreed to come back to Joketsu and help her.

When Steven arrived the first thing he did was speak to Tofu, who told him that the only one who could get Ranma to rest was Sunny and that she needed rest herself.

"He worries about her constantly. He won't rest. It's like he can't relax until he's sure she's safe. He's worrying himself into an illness."

"Well, I'll take care of that. All we have to do is get that farce annulled and send Sunny back to her mother."

Doris, who'd just walked up, stared at Steven like he'd gone insane No one noticed Ranma sitting in the window box over their heads. He retreated to his bed to worry himself truly sick.

"Steven have you lost every grain of sense you've got? You do that and you'll kill him just as surely as if you'd shot him in the head. He loves her as much as she loves him, and that's more than life itself. If you separate those kids, it'll be cruel. I won't have it."

Tofu and Steven both looked at her for long moments then just shrugged. Ranma's life had always been a circus. What else about his life should be normal. Even his marriage was . . . odd.

Ranma curled up on his bed and shivered, he was cold, why he should be cold he couldn't quite understand but he couldn't stop shivering. They were going to annul his marriage, take Sunny away from him. He knew it was really for the best, they were way too young to be married. But it hurt all the same. In fact he couldn't help but shed a few tears.

"Koi, why . . . you're crying. What's wrong? You're way too sick to be upset I'll get whoever did this it's not . . . " Sunny climbed into the bed and wrapped her arms around Ranma, rubbing at his arms to warm him, she could see he was covered with goose bumps and shivering with chill.

"It's ok Sunny." Ranma sat up weakly and swiped at his eyes. "I just overheard Steven telling Doris and Dr. Tofu that he's going to annul our marriage. I didn't expect that. I just caught me by surprise is all. I guess it's for the best. We're too young . . ."

"I'd like to know how he thinks he's going to annul the marriage. We're married according to ancient amazon customs and since you were engaged to my cousin the only way we could get married was by . . . um . . . the Chinese word for it is self sale. You sold yourself to me. You belong to me. And I'm not giving you up for anything. They can just forget it."

Ranma looked at Sunny then gathered her into his arms and held her. He was still sick; his shoulder throbbed with his heart beat, his ribs made it hard to get a deep breath and his ankle twinged every time he bent it, but he was happier than he'd ever been.

Sunny gently helped Ranma lay back down and covered him up. "You're still really sick, I think your fever is rising again. Stay in bed. I'll be right back. As soon as I get my pjs " Ranma reached out and caught Sunny's wrist, he knew she wasn't at her best yet either.

"Lay with me. You're still recovering too. Go get your pjs and come right back."

Sunny did exactly as Ranma asked. All she wanted was to be with him, rest and get better. Sunny curled up with Ranma and they both went to sleep, leaving their troubles for tomorrow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they woke, Ranma was feeling much better, he hadn't spiked a fever even though it remained slightly elevated. He'd slept restlessly but without nightmares. And he was famished.

"Sunny . . . Wife o'my heart. Wake up. I'm hungry and Dr. Tofu will tie me to the bed if I get up yet."

Sunny smiled at Ranma and crawled out of the bed, "On my way, o hungry husband. I'll see what there is in the kitchen and you come down in a few minutes. I'll stave Tofu off." Sunny produced a much desired item, a crutch, and propped it against the bed. "Don't go an inch without that. Not even a millimeter. You got me."

"Yeah, not a step. I promise. I got over punishing myself long ago. I don't want to mess up what healing I've done. But I'll starve soon." Ranma's starving orphan face made Sunny laugh. She was getting better fast, but she still had quite a way to go to replace her chi. She gave Ranma a speculative look.

"Don't get any idea's wife. I'll heal on my own. Just feed me." Ranma managed to get out of the bed without hurting himself. Quite an accomplishment in light of all his injuries and headed down stairs to the kitchen for breakfast.

Sunny looked at the meal with undisguised distress. It was a slapped together collection of yesterdays' rice, pickles, some kind of steamed mess and a few odds and ends of obviously left over dishes.

Ranma eyed the mess too and decided, "We'll be fine on our own. Sunny, I'll clean up the kitchen, you go to the market and get something fit to fix."

Sunny shook her head, "No, Ranma, I'm not going to put up with this. We need to start out as we intend to continue and that's not by letting people who are supposed to serve us get away with slacking."

"Right, but do you feel like fighting every inch of the way to get them to do what they ought? I don't. Tofu will be here soon, he said he'd be here at noon. Just find me something fit to eat for now. When he get's here, we'll make other arrangements. Funny how quick they forget."

"I don't like it. Where will we go if we don't stay here? We could go to the palace but we'd get even less rest. This sucks."

Ranma sat at the table and ate the rice and some pickles. He pushed a bowl to Sunny, remarking that it didn't look too bad. Then he suddenly put his finger to his lips.

"He's just a boy and she's too young too. They lie. Those two aren't the real dragon slayer and princess. It's some kind of trick to embarrass us."

"Yes, it is so. We won't put up with it. We'll go back to the village now."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, he was already tired just coming down the stairs and he knew they couldn't stay here, maybe Dr. Tofu would have some ideas.

Sunny rattled around in the kitchen fixing something for herself, there were plenty of supplies, rice, vegetables, even some meat, so she made a quick stir fry and sat down to eat it. Watching Ranma's face, she decided to just rush her fences and be done with it. Steven had said that Ranma's house wasn't going to be ready for weeks yet as the dragon had set everything off schedule.

"Ranma, we need to find a place away from the Compound and the palace and here. Somewhere you can rest, somewhere I can too. I'm ok, so don't get that look. I just . . . we just need to replenish our chi and you need to heal naturally. But where? Your house won't be ready, everything is off schedule, but they will finish it as soon as they can."

Ranma stopped eating with his chopsticks still between his lips, he got an arrested look on his face and then a sly one.

"Sunny, I own a house. Or at least Mom and Pop do and I don't think either one of them will object if we use it. We'll head out as soon as Tofu says it's ok. What do you think? It should be in good shape. If not, I'll get Sasuki to go fix it up. Kuno won't mind. Speaking of him where is he, he should have shown up by now."

Sunny was glad to have some good news and she had the same for Ranma, "Oh, Kuno is in the village and Ryouga and Leela are just up the valley setting up a permanent home there. There will be more incursions here, the magic boys say that the last incursion is it for about six months or more. But this area is a vortex so it needs a permanent keeper and that will be Ryouga, with Leela's help he'll be ok. And we won't have to worry about them trying to hid things. Kou Lon will see to that. So with Xian Po and Mu Tsu, this area is in good hands."

"That's great, but what about Kuno? He staying in Japan?"

"Yes, he's going to have to limit his activities. His sister is in Switzerland permanently but he still has all the Kuno businesses to take care of so he's glad we have a hiatus "

"Great. No problems until I'm better. That's a relief. Can you get hold of him? I want him to send his servant to check out my house and make sure it's livable. We'll go there. I hate to make you run all over the place but I don't trust any of the men in this village to do anything right. Don't wear yourself out but find Tofu and Kuno and ask them to come to me. I'd do it, but if I don't stay off this ankle it'll never heal. Love you."

"Love you too, but if I find out that you've been doing anything I'll sit on you. You do too much and you'll throw out another fever. You're probably going to anyway for a while. I'll go find both of them, have a word or two with the elders, and be back. Don't worry about me wearing myself out. I'm not tired physically, I just used up a lot of chi on you, so I'll just take it easy. It'll be ok. Bye."

Sunny made sure Ranma was going to stay put, more or less, and after watching from the top of the wall as Ranma settled himself on the bench by the front door, she went to find Steven, Kuno and Dr. Tofu.

They were in conference in the village restaurant. And the consensus was that they should leave well enough alone. Both teens were more mature than many people twice their age, so all three men felt that they should be allowed to do pretty much what they wanted to. Of course Steven would keep an eye on them and Dr. Tofu was going to be living with them until Ranma was completely recovered. Kuno had offered any one of several residences for their use and was going to see to it that their expenses were taken care of.

"We don't need financial help, between Ranma's salary and mine and my personal fortune, we're good. But thank you all the same. Kuno, Ranma sent me to find you, in fact all three of you. Would you please come see him. He's all upset." Sunny took a deep breath and they all cringed, with good reason, her tirade started with the condition of the house and continued through Steven's marriage annulment plans "If you think I'm going to allow you to steal what's mine you don't know much about me or Amazonian marriage customs just back off." and on to Ranma's stubborn refusal to realize how sick he could become if he didn't get enough rest. "Which he's not going to get here or in the palace or at the compound so I'd like to know what you plan since his house isn't ready and I'd like to know why he doesn't have a house after all he's done for you, you can't do something that simple for him and he already has a house in Nerima but he doesn't know want shape it's in since it's his mothers and we want to move into it as soon as possible and that's why he wants to talk to Kuno to see if he will let someone called Sasuki see to getting it fit to live in and would you do that and Tofu will live with us until Ranma's better Steven if you would . . . .mmmmmm"

Kuno did what he knew would get him punched silly if Ranma saw, he put his hand over Sunny's mouth.

"Yes, I'll send Sasuki to the house as soon as Ranma tells me the address and he'll see to it that it's ready to move into as soon as you want. No matter what shape it's in. He'll have access to as much money as is needed to get it ready as quickly as possible. I'll stay at my house, it's not far from where you'll be. It's pretty centrally located, so it's actually near everything. And if his house can't be gotten ready soon enough, my house is big enough for you to stay as long as you want. I'd offer for you to stay with me permanently but I understand newly weds wanting a little extra privacy. Consider fixing up the house my wedding present."

Sunny smiled and thanked Kuno, remarking that he could argue with Ranma himself. As long as he kept Ranma seated and resting.

"As for you, Dr. Tofu, I want a report on your finding on Ranma asap and I want another on myself. I need to know exactly what we are dealing with. I know that I can't heal Ranma like I'd like to I don't think all this forced healing is as good as we thought at first it was. He doesn't seem to heal quite all the way it's probably psychological more than physical he needs to rest mentally he's been through so much in the last year that his body thinks it's hurt worse than it really is. It doesn't make any difference he needs rest and I'm going to see he gets it. I bet he throws out a fever tonight I just feel it he needs peace and quiet so Steven you need to make sure that we don't have to worry about paying bills or tradesmen you understand? I know how to keep a budget mother taught me how to manage an estate. I've managed my estates since I was twelve with mom's supervision of course so I can do it if necessary but I'd really rather not have to fight with people who doubt my abilities and try to keep Ranma from doing something silly at the same time. Ok.

"Sunny, run down will you. We'll take care of all the arrangements for both of you. I didn't understand about the marriage until I talked to your mother. You do realize what you've done, don't you?"

"Oh yes, so does Ranma. He might not have realized exactly what the ceremony meant but he wasn't about to do something like that and not mean it for real. He's quite insulted and so am I; we aren't a couple of stupid kids, no matter how old we are. Don't forget we're . . . we're . . . well, I'm not sure what we are, but you have to admit we aren't normal seventeen-year-olds, none of us. So just go with the flow; help us out and keep strangers off our backs and everything will be ok, right?"

Dr. Tofu sighed. He had been hoping for different results, but with Ranma, everything was always off the charts weird and you just had to, as Sunny had said, go with the flow. He decided he would just stay with the two and do whatever he needed to to get Ranma better.

So the three men went to see Ranma and, after discussing everything, agreed that Kuno would send Sasuki to check on the house, Steven would make arrangements to pay the bills out of their salaries, and Dr. Tofu would stay with them until Ranma and Sunny were well on the way to recovery.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Late that evening Sunny and Ranma sat on the bench watching the sun set and enjoying each others company.

"Well, I'll be dammed. Sunny do you realize that we're married, we're going to have a home of our own, a real live semi-normal life. Could anything be better?"

"Yeah, you well again."

"Workin' on it."

the end?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxx

Actually not. There is an epilog then a sequel and a side story.

The sequel comes in-between chapter 44 and the epilog.

I started the epilog then I decided to do this; I'll give everybody three days after I post this chapter to send in any questions they have about things in the story. Then I'll write the epilog and try to answer as many of the questions as I can. Some may be held over into the sequel but I'll do my best. I'm writing the side story right now.

Thanks to everybody who's been so kind as to review, question and in general help me make this story the best I could.

Picture of the dragon.

http:elfwood.lysator.liu.se/fanq/k/e/kenn2/dragon.jpg.html


	44. Epilogue

Ranma Epilog

Ranma walked into the room. It wasn't too bad, in the six months since he'd started doing orientations he'd seen better but he'd also seen a lot worse.

This bunch was mostly late twenties to early thirties and looked hard and well trained. Not like the last bunch which had all been clerk types who wanted to get into combat. Mostly for the wrong reasons.

"Ok. Here we go." Ranma took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Gentlemen may I have your attention. . . . Gentlemen! . . . Guys! . . . HEY!" Ranma whistled shrilly. "Shut the fuck up! . . . .Thank you!"

Everyone in the room looked at this kid, he wasn't what they had expected. And, as always, there seemed to be one guy who wound up elected spokesman for the group. Out of the twenty-five men in the group this one man was unspoken leader.

"Hey! We don't want a lecture from some flunkey, we were promised a George."

"And what am I? Chopped liver?"

"You're just a kid." The man managed to look apologetic instead of mad. So Ranma decided to take it easy on him.

"Yup, I'm a kid. But I'm a kid that got sold to slavers, killed my first man at not quite sixteen, nearly got flogged to death, had a building fall on me – you'll see a video later – and killed one wyvern and captured another; you'll get to see that one later too. And I let myself get swallowed by a dragon and killed it from the inside. So I take exception to being called 'just' anything."

Ranma consulted a clipboard, "If you'll all shut up, I'll call roll and we can get on with this. I'd like to be done by noon. My wife . . ." Ranma looked up at the snickers "Yeah, my wife. I'm married to Yao Sun, Amazon Princess. The first one who snickers again will be meeting me outside. And I guarantee, you won't like it."

Most of the men had the grace to look ashamed of themselves. The rest just looked puzzled. Finally one of the smart alecks said, "Amazon Princess? What the he . . . " and found himself nose to nose with Ranma.

"Watch your mouth. You don't say her name and a swear word in the same sentence. Just shut up, the bunch of ya, and I'll get the damn roll called."

"Yeah? You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"No. Never kissed her at all."

Ranma called roll with ruthless efficiency and got the men lined up and into the theater. They would watch two videos, one of Ranma's fight in the stockade, back to back with news footage of him climbing out of the wreckage of the hotel, and another of his fight with the wyvern. Then they would see the wyvern.

He had found that he didn't mind doing orientations, Ryouga, more or less permanently in China, didn't do them. Steven and Kuno both hated it with a passion. Steven said he was too old and Kuno hated taking the time away from his businesses and his wife. Dr. Tofu wasn't qualified, although he'd proven to be a fine martial artist, he was definitely a healer. And he wouldn't trust Sunny anywhere near a bunch of lechers like this. Shuba had gone back to America to school. And Danny had refused to return after being betrayed by Downs, he was happily doing security work via computer.

Ranma started the video and sat to one side to watch the men. He'd already seen the video of himself in chains in the door and had impressed himself no end. He didn't believe he was such a showman. Or show off depending on how you looked at it. The video of the fight with the wyvern gave him chills. The OO'S and ayahs from the men made him sneer slightly.

"Ok folks, next we have question and answer, after you read this FAQ list. I get tired of answering the same questions over and over, so read first, ask second. If it's on the list and you ask it anyway I'll bite your head off. I'm . . . "

"Too damn young that's what. Do you think we're actually going to buy that shit? It's all special effect, movie stuff."

The man clenched his fists and faced Ranma who just shrugged, this happened every time. Someone didn't want to believe so they wouldn't.

"No. It's real; all too real. I'll show ya the scars. I always have to."

Ranma slipped off his shirt and tank top and let the men all see his scars, he pointed them out and told how he'd gotten them. After that he didn't have much trouble with them, they all sat down and read the FAQ sheet then followed him down to biology to see the wyvern, which was full grown by now, and quite impressive.

"You mean you caught that by yourself. I .. . Jesus, it's huge!"

"It was only a baby when I caught it. About three quarters that size. He's the size of the one I killed now. More or less."

"How'd you get it?"

"Knocked it out and duct taped it, trailered it here."

"Damn. I think I'm scared."

All the men in the group looked at him with renewed respect, Ranma smiled easily

"Don't start anything and I won't have to finish it. I don't fancy a flogging at this late date."

"What?"

"Yeah. Read the hand book! It has a full civil ordinance book, appendix C. I recommend reading it. The compound is not only quasi-military but incorporated. We have our own 'city ordinances' with appropriate sentences, and Georges are a completely different set of cat all together. This is Japan, not America or Europe, we think a little differently. Get used to it. I, personally, don't react at all well to being locked up and we can't afford for any George to be out of combat for very long."

Ranma herded them back to the briefing room, made sure they all had a hand book then dismissed them. This time had been fairly easy, none of the men seemed completely stupid. He hoped that they had better luck than the last group, two-thirds of that group had failed or opted out; that was kind of depressing.

"Excuse me. I didn't want to ask this question in the group. May I ask you now?"

Ranma eyed the man, he didn't look like an idiot so Ranma shrugged and told him, "You can ask me anything you want, I don't guarantee I'll answer though."

"Ok. Fair enough. I notice some guys wandering around the Compound wearing royal blue berets. What's with that? They seem to get some kind of extra respect."

"Those guys are secondary team members. You'll read about them in the hand book. They are the guys who make sure that a George gets where he or she is supposed to be, when they're supposed to be there. Take the brunt of vermin attacks and watch my back . . . our backs. Kuno has lost three of his men. Ryouga is using

Amazons, Steven has had a complete turn over in the last five years. So far I haven't lost anyone. Thank God. So don't mess with them. Sometimes they're a little short of patience."

The man blinked once then asked, "How do I get on one of those teams? I want to be where the action is."

"You're stupid. You'll see plenty of action without getting on a team. There's lots of incursions that only have vermin and, believe me, they're handful enough for most soldiers. If you manage to survive several incursions, you'll be given a chance. If you still want it."

"Look, if you're implying I'm a . . . "

Ranma held up his hand, cutting the man off.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before. When you find yourself crouched over a gutted friend puking your guts out, remember what you said. I'm not implying anything. I just know how it goes. If, after a few missions, you still want to try out for one of the teams, you'll be given a chance. Then it's just a matter of qualifying and finding a spot. It's all in the hand book. Look, I hate to be short with you, but Sunny will skin me with a rusty file if I'm late again. I've got lunch with her and my foster sister and her husband."

"Ranma. You come on now. Kasumi and Tofu are waiting for us."

"Oi, Sunny. Coming." Ranma waived to Sunny and then turned to the man. "You go read the hand book. Get yourself settled in. There's no hurry. If you really want something and you're qualified, it'll come. Relax." Ranma trotted off toward Sunny, a cheery 'Bye' trailing behind.

Ranma kissed Sunny on the cheek and took the picnic basket from her. "Hey, what the hell do you have in here, half a cow? Next time get me to come home and get it."

"I'm an amazon, honey. In case you've forgotten. I can carry a basket."

Sunny laughed at Ranma and put her arm around his waist. They made a cute couple and everyone who saw them had to grin. Two eighteen-year-olds married didn't seem right, until you saw them, then you could tell that separating them would kill both of them.

"Heard from Kuno this morning. Got an e-mail. You get one? He didn't include a cc. echo."

"Don't know, I didn't check my mail yet. What did he have to say for himself?"

"He an' Nabiki are in Hawai'i. His pop is in the hospital with Kodachi, so they are staying there. Some kind of business vacation combo thing. He's not real happy. No one seems to realize that he and Nabiki are the guiding force behind all the changes in the company that have brought it back from the brink of bankruptcy. He's really hot. I wouldn't want to be some of the guys on the board of directors, he had the right of veto. Managed to get his pop to sign some kind of papers giving him full authority to run the company."

"Good for him. He's tried so hard to make a go of things, and Nabiki is so good for him, as well as the company. She's really good at budgets."

"Good? She can make a yen scream in agony. She's got us invested to the hilt in really good stocks and some bonds and what all else I couldn't tell you, but I trust her to do the job right, so we don't have to worry about it. I don't have the time to fool with it with my schedule, and you having to run that estate all by yourself, you don't have time to fool with it either. We're really lucky to have her to manage for us."

"Mother was really mad when the council said I had to run that estate to prove that I'm responsible. I'm responsible! I've got my healer duties and taking care of the house and you . . ."

"Hey! I can take care of myself."

"No you can't! You haven't got sense enough to come in out of the rain if I don't drag you. Baka."

Ranma had the grace to look slightly ashamed of himself, remembering the incident she was talking about.

"I'm better now. You know I just got sick because I hadn't recovered fully yet."

"Exactly. And who didn't you listen to?" Sunny reached out and took hold of Ranma's ear, gently shaking his head for him.

"You . . . Mistress."

"Damnit Ranma!"

"Well?"

Sunny laughed and poked Ranma, telling him to put the basket down. He put it down and opened it, taking a blanket out, he spread it out and plopped down on it. Sunny rummaged in the basket and handed him a plate then took one for herself. She started opening the containers of food and setting them out.

"We gonna wait for Kasumi and Tofu?"

Sunny nodded absently, she was trying to figure out what was in a container.

"They'll be right along, Tofu had some work to finish up. Some report. I swear this place doesn't run on its stomach; it runs on paperwork. Here . . . No, wait, here they come now."

Dr. Tofu and Kasumi came strolling up from the walk hand in hand. Damn, I'm glad to see that he's finally stopped acting like a complete idiot when he's around her. They've been married long enough.

Tofu helped Kasumi sit down and she smiled up at him with her heart in her eyes. They were almost as much in love as Ranma and Sunny. Tofu smiled back and sat behind her so she could lean against him.

They filled plates and passed things around until everyone had satisfied themselves that they had the best in the basket. Their squabbling was familial and gentle, Ranma's attempt to snag something off Tofu's plate balanced by Tofu's offer of the last rice ball. And Sunny and Kasumi managed to damp the testosterone by laughing at both of them until they looked sheepish and stopped.

"Excuse me, Sir."

Ranma looked at the Sargent with a rather jaundiced eye, he'd wanted to finish one meal this week without an interruption, but it didn't look like it was going to happen.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but there's a message from the Science Section."

"Written or verbal?" Ranma's scowl deepened and made the Sargent shiver slightly.

"Verbal, Sir. It's just 'Stand Down'. I'm not sure what that means, I was just told to find you and tell you . . . er . . . Sir?"

Ranma sighed and Sunny poked him, so he stood and saluted the man and nodded, "Dismiss."

"I'm sorry, Sir! Did I do something wrong?"

Ranma had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Naw, I'm just in a pissy mood. I wanted to eat with Sunny without gettin' bothered for once." Ranma brightened, "But I guess this does qualify," At the man's confused look he explained farther "Stand Down means that there aren't any incursions in the next forty-eight hours or so." The Sargent saluted again, then turned and left.

"Ranma, I swear, you're turning into a big grump. You need to get a better attitude or no one will want to work with you anymore."

Ranma plopped down and picked up his plate again. "I know. I just need another vacation, without being sick this time. It'd be nice to go to Hawai'i with Kuno and Nabiki, but if we go that'll leave Steven without backup and I don't want to do that. Maybe we can go during the next long break. The science guys have been getting a lot better about predicting timings. I like that."

Tofu mumbled around a mouthful of rice, "I like it too . . . makes it easier to keep the choppers and ambulances stocked properly. There's supposed to be another six-month break in the next four months. They aren't saying exactly just yet. Kasumi, this bean cake is excellent."

Sunny smiled; a six-month break. That would be nice. The last break was spent taking care of a very sick Ranma and trying to get their lives in some kind of order. She wanted to just go somewhere and vacation for once.

"Ranma could we . . . maybe go somewhere? Next break."

"Sure we can go anywhere you want to. With our salaries and whatnot we can afford to go almost anywhere you want to."

"Could we go to Hawai'i? Kuno says it's really pretty there."

"Sure. As soon as I'm sure we aren't needed, we'll go. You make the arrangements and I'll do the packing."

"Oh no you don't, I'll do the packing and you make the arrangements. If I let you do the packing, we'll wind up with AK-47's and ammo. Not clothes and swim suites."

"Oh I don't know, I might pack a wet suit or two. We could go scuba diving on the reefs; besides you never know when you might need extra ammo."

Sunny laughed and Kasumi and Tofu just smiled at them. After nearly losing Ranma after the dragon incident they had noticed that he wasn't quite as brash and had seemed to mature quite quickly. But he was still something of a joker.

After devouring a meal that would have foundered a horse, Ranma admitted that he'd been slacking off and had a mountain of reports and other paperwork to catch up on. He kissed Sunny and told them all good-bye then headed for his office.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey Bricker, you got my reports ready in the computer?"

The Gunny looked up from her computer and jerked her head toward Ranma's office door.

"Ready and waiting, Boss. You better get going if you want to get them read and your homework done. You want to get that degree, you better hustle."

Ranma scowled he wanted the degree but the home work was killing him. The professors didn't seem to care that he was a working stiff and had other things to do beside cater to their idea of scheduling.

"Ok! I'm going, I'm going. I swear if I didn't want that degree so bad, I'd tell them all where to stick it. But if I'm gonna help Sunny with that estate and keep our finances in good shape I need a degree in accounting, bad. How much is left?" at Bricker's sour look he laughed. "And don't tell me you don't know, because you do."

"I do know. But only because the professor asked me to keep an eye on it and make sure you didn't fall too far behind. If you read your reports first, you should be done by seven. Or there abouts. So get to it."

"Bossy for just a Gunny, ain't cha." But Ranma's cheeky grin took the sting out of his words.

"Yeah, I am. Get to work! I don't want Steven reaming me out for letting you slack off."

Ranma sighed and went in to start reading reports. He knew if he got the reports done in time the Gunny would help him with his homework, so he knuckled down and read. When he finished reading the reports Gunny Bricker brought in several paper reports and told him. "Classified. Science Dept. Read Magic Investigations."

"Damn! I hate magic. You never know exactly what's going to happen with it. What have they come up with now?"

"Don't know. Don't_ need_ to know. And I'm glad I don't. I don't trust the stuff any more than you do. Probably nothing to do with you."

Gunny saluted and left. I wish she'd stop saluting me. I'm too young for that.

Ranma finished with all the reports in time to get the Gunny to help him with his accounting and e-mailed his work to the professor. They'd made arrangements for him to take most of his classes by e-mail so he wouldn't fall behind when he was on a mission, but that didn't make it much easier as the homework seemed to be heavier to make up for the lack of class time.

"Thanks Gunny. I really owe ya. I'd never get accounts receivable figured out. This shit is stupid. All I have to do is enter it into the computer and let the program figure it out."

"No, it isn't. What if you enter the figures into the wrong account, or debit a credit. You'd never be able to find it. That self check shit doesn't work half the time. It takes a human to find an error. I don't care what the computer Johnnie's say."

Ranma nodded, finally understanding what the problem was. "Gunny, you're right. Look, I'd love to stay and yack, but Sunny's gonna kill me if I don't get home on time at least once this week, and she's still watching me like a hawk. I'm not sick anymore but she insists on wrapping me up in cotton wool."

Gunny smacked him gently "Oh yeah, and it just hurts you _so_ bad. She worried last mission, we all did. I don't think you're completely recovered yet. So go home, get some rest and whatever." The Gunny blushed, pushed Ranma out the door and followed him. "Best get going. I've got a date, so I don't have time to make sure you get all the way home. Scat."

Ranma scatted, he did want to get home on time. It wasn't fair to Sunny for him to be late all the time. She knew he had his duties to do, she had them too. But if she went to the trouble to cook a nice meal, he should be home in time to eat it hot. Kasumi had taught him that long before he'd gotten sick.

"Sunny, I'm home." The line never failed to make them both laugh. "What's for dinner? Smells fantastic."

"Sukiyaki and shrimp rice balls. Here, tea. Kiss." Sunny smiled at Ranma and handed him a cup of tea, settling beside him on a gomden they quietly talked about the day as they watched the sun go down and ate their dinner.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sunny, did you pack my . . . oh, never mind, here it is. And here's your yakuta. Do you want it packed in the carry on?"

Ranma continued to ramble as he packed for their trip to Hawai'i. They'd been lucky. The incursions _were_ going to give them a break for about six months. So they were taking a vacation.

"Ranma, you can't take a whole duffle bag of weapons on the plane. And you certainly can't carry a knife."

"I know that. I mean, I know I can't carry a knife. I can ship my practice duffle and have it there before I get there. I'm shipping it to Kuno."

Sunny sneered gently, "You don't think Kuno has a whole complement of weapons at his home on the island?"

"Never know. I like my own anyway. Here, you can't take all these medicines either. They'll think you're smuggling drugs or something."

"Ha! I've got my licence with me and none of these medicines are prescription. They're all holistic or herbal or both."

"Yeah, and the herbals all look like pot to me."

"Pig."

"Yeah, patience, integrity, guts. Wo ai ne, Che Tzu."

"Wo ai ne, Soung Fu. Here, I'll only take the most useful medicines if you'll leave the weapons behind."

"Ok, but I don't have to like it."

"No, you don't."

After they finished packing, Ranma brought the truck around and picked up Sunny and all the baggage. They'd managed to keep it down to one large suitcase and two carry ons, which Ranma carried, leaving Sunny to manage the tickets and their other arraignments.

At the airport they checked in, boarded the plane and settled in. The stewardess thought that they were just the cutest couple, much to Ranma's disgust, especially when she tried to get them not to sleep on each other. She woke them up and scared Sunny half to death; that, to Ranma, was inexcusable and he snarled at her to leave them alone, a husband could sleep with his wife. To which she replied that they were too young to be married. That really set Ranma off and it was all Sunny could do to keep Ranma from making a small scene.

"Ranma if you don't stop, I'm not speaking to you until we get there."

"Sunny, damnit, I'm tired of this. We're married and that's all there is to it. If they don't like it, they need to just leave me alone, you too."

"Yes, but we're not in Japan anymore. These Americans are different, just let it go. Please."

"Ok, but only because you want me to."

The head stewardess came over and apologized to them, saying that the woman was rather stuffy and didn't think anyone under thirty had good sense. Ranma decided to let it go, only remarking that they'd like to get some sleep and would she please make sure that they weren't disturbed again.

"Ranma, I'm so proud of you. You didn't smack that woman for waking you up unexpectedly."

"Only because you were there, Sunny. You know you seem to calm me down so much that I don't react to stuff like I do when you're not around. If I'd been in a combat situation, she'd be toast."

"In combat is totally different and you know it."

"Yeah I suppose I do . . . now."

When they landed, the senior stewardess woke Ranma by throwing a pillow at him. He flinched slightly but woke muzzy instead of violent. She smiled and explained that her husband had been in Viet Nam and she'd been waking him that way for years.

"Oh well, I'm sorry if I was a pain. We're on vacation and both need the sleep. We've been on call for months."

"I see. At least you're not on watch-and-watch like we've been since last month. Flu."

"That's tough. Hope you don't get it. Sunny and I've been vaccinated until I feel like a pin cushion." Ranma finished gathering their carry ons and they headed out for the port authority.

When they got there the first thing the Customs Officers did was give Sunny's herbal medicines a through going over. Ranma stood in the background and tried really hard not to laugh. One of the men took exception to him.

"What do you think is so funny, young man? This is serious."

"I'm sorry. Really, I am. I'm not . . . Um . . . are you married."

"Yes." The officer flicked his eyes between Sunny and Ranma, making his opinion plain without saying anything. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You ever tell your wife something and turn out to be right."

"Sure. All the time."

"Well . . . I told Sunny not to bring all that stuff. I said it would cause no end of trouble. But she wouldn't hear of it. Said my weapons would cause more trouble, but I was right and I intend to rub it in a little. You going to confiscate it?"

"I'm afraid so. If it was in sealed containers with commercial labels, we'd let it go. But . . . well, sorry. And I'll give you some advice. Don't rub it in. Your weapons would have caused much more trouble."

"Naw. I was gonna ship them to a friend. They'd have been through customs by now and waiting at his house for me. Besides, rubbing it in will get me a smack. Then she'll be sorry. And making up is so much fun."

The man smiled at him and asked how long they'd been married, Ranma told him and he grinned, remarking, "I bet that went over real well with your parents."

"Mine aren't around, but her mom was in on it. It was an arranged thing, sort of. We've got a whole compound of babysitters."

"Bet you hate that."

"Not really. They've kept us from making some really stupid mistakes and they don't mind our business more than necessary. Kinda nice really."

"Wow. How mature is that. I know people three times your age that don't have that good an attitude. You in some sort of military? Act like it's why I asked."

"Yeah, I'm in a military organization. You won't believe it, but I kill dragons."

The man snickered softly but smiled in a way that told Ranma he was just surprised. Just then Sunny snarled softly. The customs men had taken all her medicines and she was getting ready to make a scene

"Sunny, let it go. Kuno will know the best herbalist in the islands. Come on. I won't even say I told you so."

"You just did!"

One look at Sunny's disgruntled face and Ranma had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, which wouldn't be good. He didn't fancy sleeping on the beach. After thanking the officers and grinning at them behind Sunnys' back he gathered up their luggage again.

"So tu mee here. Sooo tuuu meee. Oiy Mister you Ranma So tu mee?"

The driver was holding up a card with Ranma and Sunny's names written on it in kanji, otherwise neither of them would have known who the man wanted.

"Yeah. Only it's Sa o tow may."

"Sorry brudda. No speekee dee language. I'm Samoan."

"That's nice. But could you drop the turista accent?"

"Sure man. Only do it because the malahini's expect it. Goin' to the Kuno estate? Big place. Real nice."

"Yeah, Kuno's a friend of mine."

"Wouldn't know it to look at you. You're way too young for that crazy old man." Wannabe surfer dude nut case.

"No. Not him, his son. We work together."

"Ah. Boy's my son's age. Good guy. Well, there's your stuff, get in and we'll go. Speaking of which, the lady should. It's a long drive and not many places to stop."

Sunny remarked cheerfully that she was ok but that half way there she'd probably have to stop.

"But I can go behind a bush. I'm not shy that way."

"Ok. Lady, there's a pit stop just about half way, so I'll plan on stopping. But you might not want to leave right away, the view is fabulous. We go now."

Half way there the man stopped the car at a pull out with a small rest stop and let them out. The first thing both of them did was take care of business, then they spent the next half hour looking at the views. They admired an almost 360-degree view of volcanic mountains covered with tropical greenery and dotted with waterfalls. The lush Hawai'ian jungle made them both wish they had time for a hike.

"All 'board. We got to go or I'll be drivin' in the dark an' I don' wanna do that up here."

Another half hour saw Sunny hugging Nabiki and Ranma slapping Kuno on the back, while servants unloaded the baggage and carried it into the house. Kuno raised his eyebrows at the three bags and whispered, "How did you manage to keep her from packing the house?"

"Promised her a shopping trip in Honolulu. You got weapons?"

Kuno gave him a disgusted look. "Of course I do. You'll like the dojo. Inside and outside workout areas. Nice out door shower and hot tub. I also have a masseuse on site and a doctor."

"A what, . . . why . . . I'm . . ."

"Not for you, Fool, for Kodachi. I wanted a physician in house for her. Now that she's going to be permanently at St. Cecilia's I hate to just let the man go. I told him to take his time finding a new position, he's looking, but I'm not putting any pressure on him to go."

"Oh . . . sorry. I'm still a little touchy. Not that I'm at all sick, but everyone seems to think I'm still . . . off, or something."

"Damnit, Ranma we nearly lost you, so just put up with it."

"Yeah, ok. Just don't conspire with Sunny to coddle me. I need to workout more, not less. I'm on call again and I don't want to be less than my best."

Ranma finally got a real look at the house. It was a pre-colonial, four storey, huge, white plantation house that had been in the family since the 1860's. He felt his jaw drop and gulped

"Damn man, that thing is huge. Got a map? Sunny . . . where's Sunny. She go in already?"

Sunny cam running out just then and grabbed Ranma by the arm, hauling him into the house to admire the architecture and see the suite that Nabiki had put them in. She nattered on and on about how nice it was and how much fun they were going to have. Ranma nodded and grunted at appropriate times and let her go, if she was happy, he was too, he didn't care if they were sleeping in the Taj Mahal or a ditch.

"Look, look, a parrot! Right in the room! See? Isn't he pretty?"

"Yeah, Sunny, gorgeous. Big bird. Nice rooms."

Ranma managed to get a good look at their rooms and was impressed. They were authentic colonial, a son's suite. The rooms reserved for the eldest son of the family and his bride. There was a large sitting room, a bath room, a bedroom big enough to roller skate in and a private veranda with a stair case to the gardens.

"These rooms will be yours anytime you want them. You're welcome here anytime. I've also given the Tofu's a suite. I hope we can all get together for Christmas or something each year. Ryouga refused rooms. But he and Leela have a cottage on the grounds."

"Why didn't he want rooms?"

"Seems she's a screamer."

"Oh. Wow. Glad Sunny's not. You'd think she would be, as much as she talks, but she gritts her teeth. I tend to moan, so don't worry if you hear me."

"Nabiki and I have rooms on the opposite side of the house, you could scream like a banshee and we wouldn't hear it. There's an inter-house phone system, so we aren't out of touch. Just push one, if I'm not in the office, they'll find me for you.

"I'll leave you now and let you get cleaned up and rest a little. Meet me in the garden gazebo in about an hour, we'll have a light meal and visit. Oh! The bird isn't tame, so don't try to pet him. He just showed up one day and doesn't show any inclination toward leaving."

Sunny headed for the showers and Ranma decided to join her. After showering and washing hair, they each combed out the other's hair and sat on the veranda, letting the early afternoon breezes dry it. It felt good to just sit. They'd had so little time lately. What with the fight against the dragon, which included them getting married, _if_ you could call it that. Then Ranma allowing himself to be eaten by the dragon and the aftermath of _that_, including Ranma getting sick. Sunny still wanted to smack him for that one. And setting up house keeping because of the Amazon attitude to Ranma's status.

"Sunny?"

"Hmmm?"

"How long you wanna stay?"

Sunny stretched and yawned, ran a hand through her hair to see how dry it was and considered.

"Forever?"

"How 'bout till the next run of incursions starts?"

"'K. I have to manage that estate, but I can do it from here as easily as from the Compound."

"Why don't you just let it go? You keep saying it's small. Is it worth the worry? I make enough to support us and if it's going to worry you that much, I don't care if you let the council take it."

"It's only small if you compare it to other estates my family owns. But I don't care for it much. I'm going to inherit a bunch of bigger ones, sooner or later, and Mom says I'm doing quite well. The estate is some kind of test the council insists on. If I can bring this one back from the edge of ruin, they'll consider me fit to rule. It's entirely up to you though."

Ranma tugged Sunny into position between his thighs and started combing her hair into silky smoothness.

"Not really. It's up to you. It's your estate so you do what you want with it. If you want to worry with it, ok; but don't feel like you need to keep it for the money. We're well set up thanks to Nabiki. With the money Mom turned over to me and my salary and one thing and another, we're good." Ranma started braiding Sunny's hair.

"I feel bad for the people who live there. They need the help and I suppose I really should but . . . look. I know it's cheating, but I'm going to turn the whole mess over to Kuno Nabiki and let her mess with it. She'll love it."

"Ok, fine by me. Give her forty percent and she'll be ecstatic."

"Done. Here let me at that."

Sunny switched places with Ranma and braided his hair for him. He tipped his head back into her lap and she bent down to kiss his forehead, but he tipped farther and caught her lips wit his own. When they broke apart, they were both breathing heavily and Sunny giggled as she remarked that it felt strange to kiss upside down.

They headed for the gazebo and arrived just as Nabiki and Kuno did

"Oh Kuno-baby, they look so cute together. Don't they?"

Kuno eyed Ranma and wondered how anyone could call him cute, he was even more muscular than ever and seemed a little taller. His arrogance had diminished, to be replaced by a self-confidence that made him commanding even flat on his back. Which he was now, having flopped onto the floor of the gazebo in a rather inelegant sprawl at Sunny's feet.

"Nice." Nabiki remarked

"I'm a good slave." Ranma's expression said anything but and Nabiki realized that his position gave him a good view of Sunny's shapely legs.

"Ranma you know you're not a slave. You're my property."

"That's different – how?" Ranma eyed Sunny affectionately

"Well, it just is. One of those Amazon traditional 'things' that aren't easily explained to outsiders."

"I'm a Proprietary Spouse. That explains it all. The council is being a real pain in the ass. I had a discussion with Kuo Long. But she couldn't explain it any better."

"Nabiki, you know you'll never get a good explanation. The Chinese doesn't translate into Japanese at all and English is even worse.

"Kuno-baby, I don't care what the explanation is. If Ranma doesn't mind and I can't make any money from it, never mind. Here's the tea."

Ranma got up and sat in the chair next to Nabiki, between her and Sunny. They took their cups and the conversation turned to Sunny's estate, incursions and current news. It was agreed that the news services were making a muddle of incursions, as usual, and that Nabiki would take over running the estate for thirty percent of the profits. Which wouldn't be much, she'd already checked into the current condition of the estate knowing that Sunny would at least ask her for advice. And it needed an injection of cash just to keep it going. All the profits needed to be invested in improvements for the foreseeable future. Sunny told her to do whatever was necessary to keep the estate solvent and make sure the people there were taken care of.

"The communists just about ruined the place. And the people haven't had a school in forever. Just what I need to deal with on top of everything else. I'm glad you _are_ letting me delegate it to you. Nabiki, don't let it wear you down, if it gets too bad, I'll just tell the council to kiss my ass and let them deal with it."

Sunny shrugged. That was taken care of to her satisfaction. Ranma couldn't care less, it wasn't his estate and he didn't know the first thing about estate management anyway, so he was staying safely out of it. He took a page from Steven's book, never mess around in your wife's business unless she asks you to and even then it was a mine field, he'd missed all the mines this time and he was relieved. Accounting classes aside he really didn't want to get involved in something like that.

"Vacation, Che Tzu. Not working. Please. Tea?"

"Yes, thank you. Ranma, I'm pleased with your progress in speaking better. You don't sound like a rice farmer anymore unless you're really angry."

"Thank you. And thank Kuno. He's been on me and I've been studying with one of the guys I met in the Stockade. But you're right when I get mad it all goes to hell."

"Well, you just have to watch your temper. Not that you lose it like you used to."

Kuno put his cup down and smiled. "I have to say that he's matured a lot since I first came to the Compound. Not to mention before that. Not that I haven't as well. We all grew up a lot over the last two years."

"Kuno-baby, speak for yourself. I was all grown up years ago."

Taking the path of least resistance, they all just drank tea or took a bite of cookie. It wasn't polite to talk with your mouth full, thank goodness.

After the light meal, Ranma wasn't sure what to call it, too early for supper too late for lunch, Kuno had called it High Tea. But how could tea be high? Ranma wasn't sure, but the food had been good and the tea the best. Ranma realized his mind was wandering and Sunny was gently poking him in the ribs.

"Huh? Sorry, mind wandered."

"Might want to put a leash on it. Wouldn't want it to get lost would we? Hmmm?" Nabiki gave Ranma a wide-eyed innocent look and leaned against Kuno "Kuno-honey was asking if you surfed."

"No, but I'd sure like to try."

"I have several boards, take your pick. And tomorrow morning I'm running on the beach. Then we can go to the dojo and work out with my instructor. There'll finally be several sparing partners as well."

"I'd like that. I'll see you in the morning at . . ."

"Six A.M. I'll have one of the servants knock on the door at five thirty."

"Don't do that. I want Sunny to sleep in. She's been up before me since I got hurt and I want her to be able to sleep in. I'll get up. I've gotten used to getting up without an alarm if I need to. Just kinda tell myself to get up and I do. Amazing what getting enough sleep most of the time will do for a guy."

Sunny yawned widely and grumbled, "I'd like to sleep in but if you jiggle the bed, I'll be up. And if you want to work out just be aware of how you feel and don't overdo it or I'll tie you to the bed for a few days and you won't get to go surfing and don't hurt any of the sparing partners too much I don't want to have to come and take care of your leftovers. Kiss me I'm talking and I can't shut up."

Ranma did exactly that and they parted, the Kuno's going to their offices, and Ranma and Sunny going to their suite to rest until supper, which was going to be late tonight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Morning Ranma, you should get up now."

"Damnit Sunny, I wanted you to sleep in this morning."

Sunny rolled over and pulled the sheet over her shoulder again, Ranma finished tucking it in as she mumbled, "I am. I'm going right back to . . . "

Ranma stroked Sunny's hair for a moment before he gathered the clothes he'd laid out into one hand and his shoes into the other. He slipped out the door onto the veranda and dressed, then headed for the beach where he was to meet Kuno.

They met at the foot of the path to the beach and started running. Kuno took the hard sand right at the water's edge but Ranma kept to the softer sand just above the high tide line. They ran for quite some time and Kuno wondered how far they were going to go, he ran eight miles every other day and spend several hours a week practicing kata and sparing. Ranma, he knew was used to a far more rigorous routine but he wasn't sure how much he'd recovered.

Ranma kept his eye on Kuno, he was almost up to his old level and he wasn't sure if Kuno could keep up or not, he didn't want to out run him, then he realized that they were eyeing each other and started to laugh.

"Kuno _baby_, how far do you want to go. I'll let you decide when to turn back, I'm on vacation after all and Sunny will kill me if I over do it."

"We'll head back when we reach the tiki. And don't call me baby. Nabiki only does that because she knows it annoys the shit out of me and she likes to keep me on edge. Says it makes me sexier. Fool woman."

"Yeah? Don't knock it. She's just right for you. Sometime you have to tell me the whole story behind you two getting together. You two really did a fast job."

Kuno smirked at Ranma and just shook his head. He wasn't about to tell Ranma that particular story just yet. He'd never hear the end of it.

They finished their run and headed for the dojo, with Kuno in the lead. When they got there Ranma sighed to himself, he was going to have trouble with the Sensai. All he wanted to do was work out with Kuno but he bet this man would fail to see what was before him. They always did. Steven said it was because he was small and looked younger than he was. Ranma thought it was because they were arrogant, their size and strength making them blind to the subtleties of the art.

He decided to keep his mouth shut and see what was what before he started something that wasn't needed

"Well Kuno-sama. Is this your guest?" at Kuno's nod he looked Ranma over. "Hello young man, I hope we can have an effective workout. What is your level?"

Ranma eyed the man and shrugged, "I'm not sure. I've never tested. Anything Goes doesn't really have levels."

"If you practice Anything Goes, then you're way ahead of most of my students. I'll pair you with Kuno and watch you for a while. I'd hate to pair you with someone else and have one of you hurt the other." Ranma relaxed, remembering the other Sensai who'd had the same attitude. Need to go see them, soon.

"Would it help if I told you I killed a dragon by myself?"

"Not really. Killing an animal is entirely different from fighting a human that can think. It's an indication of your strength but not your intelligence."

"Ok. Come on Kuno, let me whip up on you."

Ranma paced off the dojo so he knew how much room he had to work with. Kuno watched him walk, he was a little taller and heavier than he had been the last time they worked out, but he still moved like a panther all lithe muscles and suppressed power.

The Sensai watched too, and shuddered slightly. This young man was something he hardly ever dealt with, he was self confident to the ultimate degree, but he'd outgrown cockiness. This young person was no boy, he'd been tempered in combat and his confidence was evident in every move he made. This man was very dangerous.

"Kuno-sama, are you sure? This man could hurt you badly."

"Ranma has regularly beaten me for years. I'm use to it. He won't do me any damage. You just watch. You'll see a display of the art that will stay with you forever . . . oh . . . don't blink"

Ranma and Kuno faced off, then the Sensai and the sparing partners could only stand and watch as the two seemed to disappear then reappear all over the dojo. It was a typical match between them with Ranma beating Kuno in about two minutes.

"Oww! Ranma damnit. Someday. . . "

"Yeah? When I've got two broken legs and a concussion . . . maybe."

Kuno laughed and slapped Ranma on the back, he handed Ranma a sword and waited as he tested the balance and reach. Then they had a short match, short because Ranma ran all over Kuno again.

"I Don't think the partners I brought will be good enough for either one of you. That's a shame because most of them could use the money. Well . . . "

Kuno got a little short with the Sensai. "I hired them to come here. I don't think I said they wouldn't get payed unless they spared. I'm paying them for their time. If you don't feel that any of them are up to my weight or Ranma's, that's too bad. But they get payed."

Ranma was looking the men over with a practiced eye. Some of them looked like they might give him a run for his money. If they attacked in concert.

"Hey, Sensai. Fuck! Kuno you didn't introduce me."

Kuno gave Ranma an odd look. The Sensai was well known in Hawai'i, then he realized that Ranma wouldn't know him. He apologized and introduced them, Ranma bowed with an odd dignity and when the Sensai bowed, he gave Kuno a glare over his head. Damn I'm toast now.

"I am sorry. I should have introduced myself."

"I'm sorry too. I should have been more polite and made sure we were introduced. I'm just used to everyone knowing who I am."

The sensai laughed, "Me too. So we're both to blame. Tell me where you learned your art. I've never seen anyone like you before. I saw someone on tv a while ago that had similar moves but they were . . .killing a something or other. If you can believe it."

"Ummm . . . . that was me. It was a wyvern."

"Oh. I . . .wow." The man hesitated then decided that anything he could say had already been said. "Well let me introduce you to my class. They've all been chosen for their skills to come spar with Kuno-sama. But I see that you are very far above them. They'll have to 'gang' up on you to do any good at all."

"That's ok. I don't usualy spar with anyone but Steven. I don't think I'll spar with your students. No offence intended but I'm afraid I'll hurt someone. I don't want that. An artist has to take responsibility for his actions and I don't need to be responsible for crippling someone."

"That's a more mature attitude than some of my students in their thirties have. I'm very impressed." The Sensai bowed to Ranma and motioned to his students to come forward. "Perhaps you would like to see a demonstration of our skills. Just so it isn't a wasted trip out?"

"Sure" Ranma settled on a gomden in seiza and prepared to watch. "I'm always willing to watch someone else work up a sweat. I might even see something new. Kuno?"

Kuno sat next to Ranma, he was just glad that the senior students weren't going to be offended. He'd had high hopes of finding sparing partners but if the Sensai said they weren't up to his weight he wasn't going to force the issue.

When the students were done. Ranma and Kuno stood and bowed. The students bowed back and they all broke, the students gathering around the two younger men and asking all sorts of questions. Ranma didn't mind this kind of question, the men were all respectful and didn't ask any personal questions, they were all about technique and skills. After thirty minutes they all sort of wandered off, one way or another, some for drinks, others to discuss what they'd seen and learned and some just to loiter in the balmy Hawai'ian breezes.

Ranma stretched and poked Kuno in the shoulder. They'd had a good workout and managed to avoid hurting feelings or bodies. Kuno led the way to breakfast with a satisfied air. This vacation was going to be good for everyone.

Breakfast was a leisurely affair, as you would expect in a tropical setting. The bird, no one was exactly sure what kind of parrot it was, flew to the veranda railing and shamelessly begged for bits of fruit. Bobbing his head and squawking 'yummy yummy' until someone gave him a bit. When Ranma tossed him one, he snapped it out of the air but gave him a one-eyed look that had all of them laughing and Ranma apologizing "Sorry Bird-san" and giving him a bit to make up.

They spent the next hour or so feeding the bird and playing with it, it was amenable to most of their silliness but didn't like having even bits of food thrown at it. It squawked at them and flapped its wings making feathers fly.

"Kuno, I think it escaped from someone. Maybe you should put an add in the paper."

Kuno stretched and poked Nabiki with his foot. "See about that will you, love?"

"Sure Kuno-baby. You taking Ranma surfing this afternoon?"

"No. Sorry. Ranma, I've got a conference call. Just pick out a board and go down to the beach. It's private but there are always a few locals there that'll be happy to teach you. Do _not_ try to learn by yourself. You'll only break the board or the leash."

"Ok, ok. I'll be careful and listen to the real surfers, if there are any of them there. Sunny, you coming?"

"No. Nabiki is taking me into Honolulu to shop. I'm buying a new bikini."

"Ok. But don't buy one of those thong things. I hate butt floss, looks gross."

"Well, aren't you the complimentary little man." Nabiki couldn't help teasing Ranma a little. He looked so serious and sounded so . . . husbandly.

"Tease all you want. But I don't want my wife showing off that much butt." Nabiki and Kuno almost choked, view a jealous Ranma in husband mode. "Ok, so I'm a little jealous. Kuno tell me Nabiki has a thong and I'll shut up."

"My wife would never insult the honor of the name Kuno by wearing something so revealing." Kuno stuck his nose in the air in mock hauteur.

"Not to mention that I hate the feel of something 'there'. It's uncomfortable as hell" Nabiki finished her last bit of juice, checked her dayrunner and walked off with Sunny in tow, calling over her shoulder "Kuno-baby, you better get in the office . . . call starts in five minutes."

Ranma laughed, tossed one last treat to the bird and headed for the beach house that contained the surf boards and wet suits. He couldn't decide wether to wear a suit or not, so when he got to the house he was glad to see that there was a man there who could help him decide.

"Hey! Sa o tow may. Aloha. You surfin'? Here for a board an' stuff, huh."

"Yeah. I'm here for stuff. But I've never surfed before so I don't have a clue."

"Ok. I gotta measure you. You 'member me?"

"Sure! You're the limo driver. You never told me your name and, I'm sorry, we were too tired to ask."

"Oh! No worries. It's Mano, means shark, among other things. Your name mean anything?"

"Yeah. Ranma means wild horse and Saotome means rice planter." Ranma looked around at the boards and picked one he liked. "Here, how about this board, I like it. Do you think I need a wet suit?"

"Board's good, right size for you an' ever'ting. You don't need a suit unless you're a real freeze bug."

Mano handed down the board and looked at Ranma for a second. Ranma examined the board and decided he didn't want a suit. So Mano pointed down the beach saying, "You'll find some guys there. They got permission to be here. Old man Kuno liked to watch the surfers. Couldn't surf himself to save himself from drowning. Couldn't swim for shit. Only calm water for that one."

Ranma took the board and grinned. "No wonder he couldn't teach Akane to swim. I always wondered about that. Oh, better give me some of that tanning oil. If I get a sunburn Sunny's gonna shoot me. Doesn't pay to piss her off. She'll nag until the sun goes down."

"Don' piss off your wahine. Don' get no nookie that way. Go, go. Have fun. Those boys a bit rough but got good hearts."

Ranma headed off down the beach and found the group of surfers who immediately started trying to piss him off.

"Hey! Private beach here. Don' want pilikia wit' you."

Ranma just looked down at the hand on his chest and then back at the boy who owned it. He grabbed his temper with both hands.

"I don't know what pilikia is but I don't need trouble."

"Dat pilikia. Trouble. We don't want none either. Best go back the way you came."

"I'm a guest of Kuno-chan, Mano said to find you and get you to teach me how to surf. "

"Oh? Polunu, go see Mano Wikiwiki 'K?"

"Sure man I'm gone."

The skinny boy headed for the beach house and Ranma watched him run. He was well set up, as were all the boys, but they were children to Ranma. He reminded himself to be gentle with them. They didn't know him so they were bound to be careless around him.

"You guys got names? Or do I just call you all 'hey you' and hope I get the right one?"

"Ha? Aloha! Me, I'm Nui, dat Kei, the runner, he's Polunu. You are?"

"Ranma Saotome. Hi. . . un . . Aloha?"

They were interrupted by Polunu coming back rather breathless. He talked to Nui in rapid Hawai'ian and then Nui grinned.

"You ok. Some kinda big shot in Nihon? You Kepani, huh."

"Un. . . I'm Japanese and I don't know about being a big shot. I'm more of an exterminator than anything else. You gonna teach me to surf, or what?"

All three looked sheepish, laughing and nodding. They led Ranma down to the sea and had him put his board in the water. After getting leashed to his board Ranma knelt on it while they showed him how to paddle out to the best place to catch a wave.

While they waited, they questioned Ranma, not on what he did but what he wanted out of his vacation. He answered all their questions and asked a bunch of his own.

"Ok! Here we go. Paddle! Paddle! Go hard . . . you're catchn' it. Go . . . go."

Ranma caught his first wave and happily rode it to the shore. He stayed flat on his belly like they'd told him to and enjoyed the ride. When he got in, they all slapped him on the back and congratulated him on his first ride. Then they started teaching him how to stand up on the board. That was when his martial arts training kicked in. He stood on the board in the shallow water and they waited for him to over balance and fall in. But with his sense of balance that didn't happen. So they paddled out again and waited for Ranma to catch another wave.

"Hey, I forgot to ask you. You swim good?"

"Yeah, I swim good."

"How good you swim, brudda?"

"I've made it from Japan to China."

"No shit?"

The three surfers looked at Ranma but didn't say anything. Hawai'ians don't call anyone a liar, it's rude. They just wait for proof one way or the other. They weren't long in getting the proof of Ranma's story.

While they were floating, watching for a good wave, a rip tide developed suddenly. It was so sudden it swept Kei away, dumping him off his board and separating him from it by the length of the leash. Without thinking, Ranma popped off his leash, rolled off his board and swam to Kei. He scrambled on the board, paddled to Kei and hauled him on the board in front, then he paddled to shore.

"Aie. You see that? Just like a motor boat! Never saw anyone paddle that fast before. Here . . . we get the water out of him, he'll be ok. Just let him breath. Get him a towel, wrap him up."

Ranma snapped the sand out of a towel and wrapped Kei in it. It seemed that he'd hit his head when he fell off his board, he had a lump and he looked a little woozy. They all patted and poked at him and Ranma finally declared him 'stunned but good'.

"You a doc?"

Nui eyed Ranma who admitted that he wasn't, but that he'd had medic training from the best available. He offered his shirt, even though it was wet it would help Kei avoid shock. The scare had used up his adrenalin and the rush was making him shake.

When they saw his scars he didn't get the usual reaction, instead they examined them and exclaimed over them. None of the boys seemed disgusted or bothered, instead they wanted to know how he'd gotten them wanting stories.

"Aww, you guys ain't interested in a buncha war stories. They're boring."

"Look, man. We Hawai'ians are a peaceful people. We don't start nothing, but we can fight if we need to. We all like stories a lot. You tell or are you to too proud to swap stories with a bunch of surfer dudes."

"Ok you start" Ranma figured that would stop them, but it seemed that they all had stories.

So Polunu showed Ranma a funny looking scar on his thigh and told him about getting caught in a squall while he was out fishing with his father and the out rigger breaking and stabbing a splinter into it. Then Nui showed a scar and told his story. Finally Kei told his and then they all pinned Ranma with firm looks.

"Now you tell. No backing out. Not fair. We told, now you have to."

"Ok. You point and I'll tell, but choose carefully. Some stories aren't fit for anyones ears but I'll tell. And you won't like it."

"Ok, um . . . that one."

Luckily they pointed to the Imp scars,, so Ranma told how he'd gotten them watching as their eyes got bigger and bigger. Then they all sighed, Polunu finally exclaimed, "You're that guy! That Ranma!"

Ranma admitted that he probably was, and asked how they knew anything about him. When they explained that there had been a documentary on tv, he groaned silently, wondering exactly what had been in the fool thing. But he decided not to worry about it, done was done, and throwing a fit now was slightly immature.

"Oh well . . . can't put the meat back in the nut after it's cracked. You guys want to go on surfing or what."

"Naw! Waves are gone. Tides out and we better get back home, get this fool fed and so on. Thanks for saving his sorry butt. We'd miss him."

They all gathered up their stuff and headed back to the house.

"You all go to Kuno's?"

"Naw, we park behind the garage so as Mano knows who's here. He keeps track."

As they left Ranma heard one of them tell the others, "I'm glad we didn't ask about that long scar on his back. I don't think that story would have been half as good. Great guy. Hope he stays around a while."

Ranma headed back to the house with a light heart and showered. After his shower he decided to take a nap, the tropical setting seemed to encourage that sort of thing.

When he woke up, he looked around to find Sunny sitting in a Papa San watching him sleep with a silly smile on her face.

"How you feeling, Koi? You look good. Better than I've seen you in a while."

Ranma yawned and rolled over onto his stomach to smile sleepily.

"Feel good. Sleep helps, especially as I don't have to worry about call outs. You?"

"Shopped till Nabiki dropped. We had fun. I like Hawai'i. The people are so nice . . . all treated me like a long lost cousin."

Ranma crawled off the bed, took Sunny in his arms and spent the next few minutes alternately kissing her and telling her about his day. She gave him a swat and growled, "Trust you to get into a mess first thing. Is that boy ok?"

"Far as I can tell. Bumped his head. The guys acted like they knew what to do for him. They took him home."

"Oh. Good. Where's that bird? " Sunny looked around expectantly. "I don't see him."

"I haven't seen him either. Maybe Kuno will know. It's almost dinner time. I'm hungry."

Sunny glared at Ranma sternly. "You didn't eat lunch did you." At Ranma's sheepish head shake, she demanded, "and why not?"

"Surfing and then came home, fell asleep and just missed out somehow. Sunny, don't frown like that. I won't starve to death from missing one meal. After all, I'll make up for it at dinner. It's bound to be plenty. We're supposed to have a luau, whole roasted pig, the whole shooting match. Come on."

Ranma hauled Sunny onto the veranda and down the stairs, headed for the luau site, with Sunny giggling and protesting all the way.

"Come on, Sunny, we don't want to be late. Roast pig and all the trimmings, I can't wait. Do you think there will be dancers? I'd like to see hula."

"If there are dancers, what makes you think they will all be girls. Guys do hula too, you know."

"Well, if there are, I'd like to see that too. I never thought of guys doing hula. Seems kinda funny to me."

When they got to the luau site Ranma immediately went to sit by Kuno. They sat gossiping companionably, Kuno grumbling about the conference call that kept him stuck in the house all day. Ranma filled him in on his surfing experience and Kuno motioned Mano over. After telling him to post a rip tide warning, he also thanked him for taking such good care of Ranma

"No madda, Boss. He good fella. Kanunu is fine. He save my sista' son from bad pilikia. Near drownded. Him make ok now."

"Ranma. Trust you to be in the middle of trouble. How do you do that?"

Ranma managed to look sheepish. "Wasn't much. He just fell off his board and hit his head. You know me I'm a shit magnet."

"Ya' Kanunu. They tell alla' bout you. Good storys. I'd like to hear about the . . . .oh! Hey! Gotta go."

Mano took off, headed for the gate, a truck full of dancers was trying to pull off onto the grass. Where they would surely get stuck, he managed to head them, off but you could hear him yelling in a mixture of Hawai'ian and pidgin.

"Ranma, if they get to talking too much pidgin, just tell them. They're all good people. Even the surfers. They tend to be a little territorial, but . . ."

"We already got that taken care of thanks. I really like them, they're friendly as hell and they did take good care of me. Here! That's one of them over there. I'm going to go talk to him. Where's Sunny?"

"She went over to the dancers already."

Ranma headed for the group of dancers, which was about equally divided between men and women. They were milling around in the gate, getting their stuff sorted out. He'd never seen drums like theirs and there was enough grass to start a good sized fire. Also, some pretty tablecloths.

"Here, let me take those. I'll take them to the picnic for you."

"What you say? What fo' you wanna . . . "

"Whoa! Didn't understand a word after 'What'."

"Ah! Sorry. What did you say? Why do you want to take our sarongs to the luau."

"Um . . . tablecloths?" Ranma pointed to the folded cloth on the tailgate.

"No, man. Sarong. Here. I'll show you."

The lady tugged at Ranma's shirt and laughed as he pulled the hem back down. They were distracted by Sunny calling Ranma to see the sarong she was wearing. Ranma couldn't help but grin as she walked toward him, hips swaying, the sarong clung to her figure making him wonder if they could sneak off for a little while.

"Un unn, don't even think it. I'll never get this thing back on right. I'll need a few more lessons before I can do that. You likee."

"Me likee much. Come here, Wahine."

Ranma spent a few seconds wondering if he should kiss Sunny, then he found them shoved gently together so he kissed her, to the genial hoots and laughter of the Hawai'ians gathered around.

"Kiss her good, kiss her fine, you don't wanna, I make her mine."

Ranma mock snarled at the chanting group and, taking Sunny's hand, turned her around whistling appreciatively

"Ok, you animals. She's mine, she's mine, I kiss her good, I kiss her fine."

The group broke up and headed in various directions. Ranma watched Sunny go off with the girls who had promised her hula lessons. He couldn't wait to see her dance. He wondered if the guys did hula too. So he asked, and was told, "Sure. Men do hula." at his face the guy laughed. "Men do hula different. You'll see."

Ranma thought about it for a second. "But I want to dance too. I want to dance for Sunny. If she dances for me it's only fair."

"Ok, you good fella. I'll teach you to dance hula."

So Ranma got hula lessons. He learned the hula, men don't dance the same way the women do and he had fun learning the chest slapping, stamping dances that men do. He was told that each dance told a story and they had him learn a dance about hunting. When they finally got done, he was the only one not panting a little.

"Hey! Man you got wind like a hurricane. What you do for a living?"

"I'm an exterminator. I kill things that no one wants around."

"Like what? Dragons an stuff?"

"Yeah. You've probably seen me on that damn documentary on tv. "

"You do that martial arts. What kind?"

So Ranma told them, which led to some testosterone loaded horsing around. All in good fun but finally one of the men started doing pushups and showing off, so Ranma watched until he couldn't stand it anymore, especially as the mans girlfriend sat on his shoulders while he did ten.

"Hey Mano, come here a sec."

Mano wandered over to see what he wanted. Ranma got him to sit on his shoulders and started doing one handed pushups with the three hundred pound man on his back. Amazingly, no one made any remarks about him showing off, they just counted until someone called a halt, telling Ranma not to wear himself out so early in the evening as there was plenty going on later.

Kuno, who'd watched with amusement as the genial, friendly Hawai'ians drew Ranma into their circle, finally managed to get Ranma to sit down and rest. A real accomplishment, since Ranma was used to such a high level of activity that he could, and had, worn out whole battalions. While they sat, Kuno examined Ranma covertly, he looked good and he'd been back to active duty for quite a while but he couldn't help worrying.

When the pig was done, they started eating. Ranma had helpings of everything, only refusing poi, saying it looked like dragon guts. 'And I should know'. Everyone who didn't know Ranma was astonished at the amount of food he ate, but the cooks all appreciated his unabashed pleasure in the well-cooked dishes.

The dancing had started while they were eating and when they were finished eating the dancers started trying to get the diners to get up. Nabiki firmly refused, pleading too full a stomach and Kuno just laughingly reminded them that he had no sense of rhythm. Sunny got up and danced, right in front of Ranma, making him feel that it was just for him. He watched her gently swaying hips and the graceful movements of her arms and hands. He knew he was the luckiest guy alive to have such a wife.

Then the music changed and the men ran out. Their dancing was vigorous and completely different from the women. Ranma was dragged into the stomping, clapping group and he danced only for Sunny, who sat with gleaming eyes and parted lips as he showed off for her alone.

Ranma finished with the other men and they all scattered to their friends, he flopped down beside Sunny and grinned. "Well? You did good, very sexy. Do you think it's too early to sneak away for a while?"

"Oh Ranma, I don't think we can get away just yet. Do grow up"

Ranma leered at his wife and whispered in her ear.

"I'm workin' on it, Honey. Remember, I'm not even twenty yet. I get to be foolish now and then."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wo ai ne I love you

Che Tzu Wife

soung fu Husband

the lady who helped me with the chinese didn't know how to spell the words in romanji so if it's spelled wrong it's my fault.

Polunu Chubby

Mano Shark

Kei Dignified

NuiBig, important

Kanunu Strong one

Ranma is not a haole, as he is Japanese, not cacausian. He is a malahini (tourist) however.

Well, stick a fork in me. I'm done. That's it. Over. I can't believe it. This story has taken up nine months of my life and thundered, crept and wandered through forty-four chapters. I feel kind of let down that it's over. But elated too, I've managed to write a whole book, more or less. There will be a sequel which is about the time Ranma spent recovering from the 'Dragon incident' and a side story about Kuno and Nabiki but they will be a while in coming. I'm just tired of the whole story for right now. Come back and check from time to time. Also check my other stories, as I'm going to finish Time on a Chain before I do anything else.

I want to thank all the people who have read, are reading or will read this. I especially want to thank all the people who have read, reviewed, and in other ways helped, encouraged, and prodded me along. I'd list you all but that would make this over thirty pages.

So thank you all and

THE END.


End file.
